4/29/15

BEST OF WEEK: THE MULTIVERSITY #2 — At long last, it comes to this. I had been meaning to go back through the entire deal but never had time so when it got to Wednesday, I made the questionable call to read every single issue from Page One on, meaning that my day at work was more than a little wobbly, but by the time it was time to read the new comics, I still had the GUIDEBOOK and MASTERMEN and ULTRA COMICS left, so before I even cracked this thing open, I had scorched my brain out with 340-something pages of all that had come before since waking up. And the finale is magnificent. It not only delivers incredibly satisfying resolution to the initial plot from #1 but was wonderful enough to veer around through several of the other Earths that we only got glimpses of through Guidebook entries, the rhyming of the SuperDemon of Earth-13 being the most wonderful breakout example. Apparently the Li’l Batman of Earth-42 met an unfortunate fate on Earth-17 after the last time we saw him, which was a very unfortunate Easter egg. Morrison does a great job balancing the ensemble. I still can’t believe not only how much panel-time that Captain Carrot got but how terrific he was throughout. Really almost the breakout character! And Red Racer runs up out of nowhere to steal the show. I was a huge fan of how he not only one-upped me by reading the entire back-catalogue in-between panels and then explicitly referenced Flash’s sacrifice in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. But for all of this sound and fury and dimension-hopping and resolution, this whole massive event turns out only to be the beginning. I could not believe it when Nebuloh, the adult universe of Qwewq, showed up at the end, but of course that’s so obvious in hindsight! And poor lost Multiverse-2! And the over-the-top madness of Operation Justice Incarnate! All so wonderfully counterbalanced by Nix Uotan’s own personal crisis to just make the rent. This was another masterpiece that ranks with Morrison’s finest work such as FLEX MENTALLO, NEW X-MEN, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, SEVEN SOLDIERS, and the brilliant BATMAN/FINAL CRISIS run. It is so inspiring to see such an imagination still firing at maximum capacity and getting wilder all the time.

BATMAN #40 — Way to make the line-wide event nonsense work for you! The last time something like this lined up so well was when Gaiman’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” was released during the post-FINAL-CRISIS time-zone when Bruce was apparently dead by Omega Effect, which lent the Gaiman/Kubert tale of Batman’s funeral an added resonance of being in-continuity and “counting” more than it certainly would have if it had been released opposite four other titles of Bruce Wayne swinging around and kicking ass that month. So, the deal here is that Snyder/Capullo/Miki/Plascencia bring at least The New 52 portion of their program crashing down around our protagonist’s pointy ears as the Endgame finally comes to a resolution that appears to be every bit as final as the entire arc has been teasing from the get-go. Over the past three and a half years, this team has done a hell of a job carving out a modern-day run that can stand tall with the all-time classics, and this finale, while not necessarily the definitive capstone on the entire endeavor, is definitely a compelling finale to all that has come before and worthy of being in the company of Miller, Morrison, and O’Neill.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #40 — First of all, good on DC for bringing in Kevin Maguire to draw the first nine pages of this book. No one can do Justice League for you like that man. And it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Lee/Williams and all of those other guys pitching in on the back end, there. Beautiful pages throughout, a hell of an art-jam issue. The story? Well, Johns basically does a cover version of Kirby’s classic “The Pact” from NEW GODS #8 and then borrows some pages from Morrison’s MULTIVERSITY GUIDEBOOK that just came out like three months ago and has Metron narrate the entire history of DC events to us in an attempt to fashion linearity out of corporate grand-unified-narrative insanity, all before introducing Darkseid’s daughter, who appears basically to just be the new Hot Topic version of Raven but is supposed to inspire dread. The art was terrific.

CONVERGENCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #1 — This is more the caliber of creative talent that I feel like they should have brought in across the board on this event. Wein/Cowan/Sienkiewicz lay some interesting groundwork here, juxtaposing the relationship between the Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson of Earth-2 with old Comrade Superman of the Red Son Earth-30. I was, in particular, a fan of the chemistry between Dick & Helena. We didn’t as much see them in action as get vignettes of how they related to one another, which was more compelling than just watching them beat dudes up. It looks like that might be over and done with, but it was nice while it lasted.

CONVERGENCE: SHAZAM #1 — Now, this business right here is exactly what I am talking about. Why couldn’t every CONVERGENCE title just knock it out of the damn park like Jeff Parker, Evan “Doc” Shaner, and Jordie Bellaire do here? This issue gives that THUNDERWORLD a run for its money, even! So so good. The characterization is spot-on. The art is intricate and fully realized but still stylized enough to match the cartoonier aspects of its subjects. There is adventure and just the right time to cry magic words. This was a wonderful wonderful Shazam issue, and we didn’t even have time for the Gotham by Gaslight folks. Which is a real shame. I would say, minimum, I would love to see a corresponding Gaslight solo issue before bringing the two together in one final issue, but I know that we’re just one more and done. It’s a shame. I would have devoured six issues of this business. I was certainly a fan of Parker’s AGENTS OF ATLAS a few years back, but he has struck gold again with this art team and these characters. Surely the best CONVERGENCE title of them all, just magical.

MORNING GLORIES #45 — Some pretty dark shit re: Jade, my friends. More rock-solid storytelling from that rascally Eisma. I like how Spencer starts off with Claire’s mother out in the road in 3.12 and then winds up with poor old Locke hanging out there at the end of 5.07. Glorious old MGA really has it in for its students’ parents, seems like!

BITCH PLANET #4 — All right, after getting some set-up out of the way, I found this done-in-one to be a bit more satisfying than the previous three issues. And that is not a reference to the obligatory shower scene(s). But the art is more banging than ever, Megaton seems like a pretty cool sport, and I’m digging the agency of our heroine as she refuses to get gamed by the system. Bring on #5!

SCARLET COUTURE #1 — I have been a fan of Des Taylor’s pin-up art for some time now and was happy to pick this up to support his foray into sequentials. This book is as good-looking as anyone familiar with his work would expect. There is a highly stylized and very bright Fleischer-by-way-of-Timm thing happening here that is very much its own thing. This fashion-meets-espionage gig is a solid thing to explore. It does seem like he might be limiting marketability with the dips into more adult language. While it’s certainly well within acceptability of the genre, the cartoonish style of the art could definitely draw in readers of any age.

PRINCESS LEIA #3 — Another stirring adventure as Leia, Evaan, and R2 blast their way through Stormtroopers, droids, giant monsters, and anything else that gets in between them and any stray Alderaan refugees. This refugee-pickup thing is very solid long-term motivation for our princess, and Waid does us a favor by advancing along the mole/spy plot pretty quickly, and the Dodsons/Bellaire continue to blow it up on every single page.

DAREDEVIL #015 — Another dynamite installment from one of the most consistently excellent creative teams making comics today. Matt’s new look continues to delight, the Owl’s apparently omniscient spyware is freakier and freakier, and an old friend returns just in time to welcome all of the kids tumbling into the situation from Netflix. It’s a testament to the overall strength of this run that I haven’t even missed him until now.

FANTASTIC FOUR #645 — And so we come to another end of The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine. Robinson/Kirk/Kesel/Aburtov certainly pull out all the stops here. It’s big and loud and guest-starring everybody, but of course, it all comes down to Val to save the day with the brightest intellect of all. Both of the Torches barely making it was also a nice touch. The creators did a fine job all around, but this issue might have suffered from getting billed as THE FINAL END, you know? I’m afraid that anyone who might care enough to get worked up about this title actually coming to a close is too jaded to believe that it could actually ever happen. There will be a new #1 in a few months, and if that volume makes it 54 issues, I guarantee that the next issue will be a milestone #700th issue, and we’ll be right back off to the races once again. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. The pages and pages of creators discussing their favorite covers was by far my favorite section. Kirby forever!

SILVER SURFER #011 — I knew that Slott & Allred were hyped about this ahead of time and with good reason. This comic is a damn Mobius strip, twisting and wrapping around itself with the content of the power cosmic and a stray chrono-cannon providing the reason for the form and resulting in a delirious and intoxicating sequential experience that leaves the reader as disoriented as our heroes. It’s almost a shame to resolve the new Battlestar Galactica status quo established last issue so quickly, but this was a hell of a way to do it. All the while, Slott never loses sight of his characters and even manages to make us care about a couple of supporting players’ points of view who I don’t even think we’ll revisit, all the while pushing the narrative forward. And the Allreds outdo themselves, turning in the best-looking stack of pages yet, never even mind the upside-down flip-book trickery. This continues to be an incredible run on a character that almost no one manages to get right.

AVENGERS #044 — This one let me down a bit. That plays into expectations I brought into the situation. I knew going in that this was going to feed into SECRET WARS, but I still expected there to be some sort of solid milestone resolution. This has been a hell of a run that has managed to steadily escalate and raise the stakes across a combined 77 issues pumped out in a little more than two years, just as fast as Mighty Marvel could super-collide them into being, and while I wasn’t expecting a definitive THE END, or certainly not even anything as perfect and beautiful as the two-part finale of Hickman’s FANTASTIC FOUR/FF run, I was hoping for more than a zoom-out and a “See You Next Week for SECRET WARS!” There were several memorable moments. You have to love T’Challa giving it to Obama straight or Ultimate Reed introducing Nick Fury & Hawkeye to 616 Thanos & Maximus (a nice bit of lettering there, keeping the Ultimate guys in lower-case and juxtaposing the 616 villains in all-caps). The long flashback to Steve & Tony in the diner was certainly trying to hearken back to the whole genesis of this thing, but it felt forced. The Kev Walker art didn’t help. While Stefano Caselli brought the usual justice, Walker’s perfectly serviceable efforts did not mesh well nor seem to be of the A-list caliber that a finale like this should merit. It is unfortunate that Hickman’s old S.H.I.E.L.D. collaborator couldn’t have made it in for a few pages instead. I don’t know, maybe with the Civil War now brewing in the Mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe (not to mention the impending horror-show of Snyder & Goyer trying to blow up all of their Superman & Batman toys), I’m just tired of watching my heroes pitted against one another, but it was kind of a drag to have the grand summation of this deal amount to nothing greater than Captain America and Iron Man repulsor-raying and beating the shit out of each other under red Crisis skies, of all things. Maybe all of this will seem more awesome in hindsight, and I am certainly still looking forward to SECRET WARS next week, but as the finale of a truly epic run judged on its own merits, this one came up short for me.

NEW AVENGERS #033 — On the other hand, this one worked. I don’t know if it’s because the first issue lowered my expectations, or if I’m just still such a fan of Hickman carrying over his six-years-and-running mastery of Doom from the FF run, or if it was that last-page twist framing the timeline of all of this, but this one landed for me. Deodato/Martin once again absolutely burned it down on the interiors. It was interesting to get the secret origin of the Black Swans and all of the machinations that have been driving our extra-dimensional antagonists for this entire run. Bring on the carnage. There is only SECRET WARS!