7/29/15

SUPERMAN #42 — The Jorge Corona variant cover of this issue is just the greatest. You want an entire cartoon show that looks just like this. But we’re stuck with the greatness of Yang/JRJr./Janson/White giving us only the second part of their Secret Identity No More! arc, featuring Lois actually ripping our boy’s shirt off, knowing what she’ll find underneath but still pretty shocked about the whole deal. I dig the idea that information is the new currency of the twenty-first century, the prize that must be safeguarded the most. Maybe Clark tells Lois to publish as the only option to defeat these HORDR folk? And I’m sorry, but was anybody else reading “Hodor” instead of this new crew’s actual name? Some unintentional humor that is welcome nonetheless. Still so grateful that both Superman titles are now this terrific and unmissable. That’s how it should always be.

BATGIRL #42 — What is not to love about our Babs teaming up with her Bat-Gordon daddy with him having no idea what’s going on? I mean, though, really? No idea? You’d think he’d start to pick up on it now at least, if he hadn’t sussed to the truth already. Maybe this is one of those Aunt May things where he’s known all this time and just respected her privacy and not made a thing about it? It doesn’t matter. Tarr is as on-point as ever, this time with breakdowns by a couple fellas I’ve never heard of, Wyatt & Lacombe, and colors by Lapointe, but everything looks terrific. The fights scenes are dynamic and there are a couple of tight shots of our cowled heroine that are so iconic-looking, you wonder if they’re posters that you’ve seen already. More strong work from one of DC’s best.

BATGIRL ANNUAL #3 — This is magnificent. Anyone considering skipping this maybe (because the regular series came out the same day and that will get you your fix just fine, and Babs Tarr isn’t even on art anyway, so) is doing him- or herself a serious disservice. This is a 36-page tale too big to be contained in a regular-sized issue or even by a single artist. Bengal, LaFuente, Doyle, and Chen (hey, there are two Mings providing art duties on this book; that is not something you see every day. Go, Mings!) all bring their own respective thunder and actually mesh pretty well, so that it isn’t too jarring as the tale segues from one artist/guest star to the next. The cover only reveals that Grayson is in the mix and so I won’t go in any further, but let’s just say that anyone who is a fan of Fletcher’s other books in the pocket Fletcherverse really really needs to hang out until the last scene. I was so happy. Cut my eyes out, but as much as I really love Tarr’s art, this might very well have been the most satisfying done-in-one from this Burnside reconfiguration yet. Terrific fun.

STAR WARS #7 — What a great idea for fill-in stopgaps in between arcs. You just go to the journal of Old Ben. Bianchi/Ponsor show up with terrific art that maintains the ridiculous quality level set by Cassaday/Martin while Aaron provides the MacGregor-narrated captions of a Jedi whose greatest challenge is accepting willful inaction. Of course, if nothing happened, that would make for a terribly boring twenty pages, so there have got to be thugs representing old Jabba, and also a certain willful boy with a greater destiny than even he can imagine. It seems as though scripting the action for this period is an even tougher insertion than the challenges poised by sliding anything worthwhile in between IV and V. I mean, the status quo can’t change. No matter what, Ben has to wind up in that hut on the Dune Sea and Luke has to grow up ignorant of his heritage. Aaron does a nice job here crafting how a spot of in-character willfulness on the boy’s part is responsible for galvanizing his silent guardian at a time when he was at his lowest. All that and a couple of callbacks to fading away and binary suns, only one of which made me wince. This was a solid throttle-down from the main action, but I’m certainly ready to crank it back up again next month with the sickness of Immonen and whatever the deal is behind a certain Miz Solo, hey?

DAREDEVIL #17 — I’m running out of great things to say about this title. Waid/Samnee/Wilson continue to deliver Murdock glory and perfection, now only amplified by the long-awaited appearance of our hero’s arch-nemesis. How is Matt going to get out of THIS one?!?

THORS #2 — This was the first issue tie-in that I enjoyed the most, and Aaron keeps up the fun, doubling down in the opening scene with Odin delivering a crushing eulogy for a fallen Thor that is as worthy a remembrance as any warrior might ever hope for. After enjoying the art so much on #1, I was a little disappointed to see that Sprouse already needed a fill-in, though Sudzuka is definitely going to get it done for you. The back half of this one almost wanders into continuity sludge after the strong implication that the main Thor, the guy they’re calling unworthy now who’s the one who starred in those hundreds of issues Marvel comics put out since the early sixties, it looks like this guy might also remember the pre-Battleworld status quo from the way he’s talking. And of course, an old friend has to show up by the end. There had been so much else going on that I honestly hadn’t missed him yet. Storm Thor & Destroyer Thor probably deserve their own spinoff book.

SOUTHERN BASTARDS #10 — So, we’re just going to jump around for a bunch of one-shot –centrics, it looks like. That’s a pretty economical way to get to know some other folks better, zooming in this time on our most repugnant fella yet, that old Esaw Goings. We don’t really gain too much empathy for the boy, as was the case with Coach Boss’s surprising second arc, but you’ve got to at least respect his consistency. The repeated internal monologue bursts were great fun. You know what, though, Jason Latour’s essay at the end of this issue on the need to take down Ol’ Glory was as cogent and intelligent an analysis of a prickly issue that I have seen, paying respect to any calls for heritage while never losing sight of the truth that the image is inextricably linked to the centuries-long oppression of a race and forever will be. Kind of like old Esaw, only the exact opposite, pretty much.

BEST OF WEEK: TRANSFORMERS VS. G.I. JOE #8 — Not that Sciloi has been fucking around for a single page of this, but this issue he manages to rocket it up to an even more ridiculous and gloriously over-the-top level. Snake-Eyes Cobra Last Summer homage giving way to young Billy Commander getting just ripped apart by the Snake God. Omega Supreme’s transformation from highway and casual destroyer of Decepticobras into a rocket ship spiriting the upper echelon of Joes away to Cybertron is ingenious. And only takes three pages! There’s a wonderful madness to the way that Scioli hyper-compresses so much action and thought into every single page. Every one of these issues really could be a fantastic 48-page special without sacrificing the breakneck pace, but there’s something magical about the degree to which this series has been racing along red-lined pedal-on-the-floor since the beginning. The two double-page splashes of Optimus Prime VS. Megatron are, of course, for the ages. And what a finale, The Boom Beyond Booms, a magnificent homage to #21. Surely NOT The End.

THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS: THE SUN BEYOND THE STARS #2 — Narrowing the focus down to just Yuri & Laika remains a good idea, as the pair get a little bit of elbow-room to stretch out into their own adventures. Pitarra continues to refine his style past his strong Quitely/Darrow roots and on into something more uniquely his own. And it looks like the interstellar hijinx are only beginning, with Laika of course being the most intelligent individual by a significant margin.

GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #10 — And so Ryan Browne brings the blistering madness not to a close but actually careening off a cliff into the existential terror of infinite white space! Not my little friend! Browne manages to crank up the art on this one, his rendering ability matched only by his apparent frothing madness. Here, we find Dr. Doom remixed with a Metron design! The most horrifying Environmints ad of all time! Worlds colliding! And blessed news from the 3-D household! This one has it all, folks!

LOW #8 — Respect to Remender/Tocchini/McCaig. After burning through just seven issues, while maintaining the long-term motivation of this adventure, this dramatic shift in dynamic after the first arc results in what feels like the creation of almost a different book. A tighter and more intimate one, at least in this first installment. The art remains knockdown drag-out stellar, but it’s the character work that really makes this one sing. Between this and BLACK SCIENCE (and shit, that DEADLY CLASS has still gotten by me, I’m just realizing), you can totally see why Remender has bailed on the corporate situation, and good on him. Everyone who cares about supporting creator-owned books has no excuse in the world not to be picking this one up.

SEX CRIMINALS #11 — It’s Fraction Time! Git me All the Matt Stat with an extra-long side of Chipper. I think that was supposed to be extra-large, but this book works its own magic. I didn’t get any special Scott Pilgrim XXX perversion variants, which I totally wouldn’t have minded learning in the comfort of my own living room, but the nice lady behind the counter at my friendly neighborhood LCS asked me to go ahead and open mine so that she could take a picture of me and the Pilgrim dick or whatever it was if I was a lucky winner, and when I saw that I got just the regular cover, I felt like I let all my friends down and also even the strangers who were watching me not succeed. This issue, though. These guys continue to do fine work fleshing out the supporting cast and packing all the gags into the background that good Chipper can manage. The double-shot of the Golden Years Retirement Home (“mmbop-bop!”) followed by the cat advising the residents to “Hang in There, Baby!” had me so tickled, it should be more illegal than whatever Pilgrim dick managed to elude me. I enjoyed the four black panels encouraging us to imagine all the insanity that Chipper would have provided and am sure that there’s a really funny Asian language gag on Page 5, panel 5 but haven’t managed to figure it out thus far. Don’t worry, there are only forty more Asian languages to try! At any rate, if you haven’t told all your friends about this one yet, you should really go ahead and pull the trigger on that one. Lots of fun to talk about at parties, especially after everybody’s had that fourth or fifth shot and/or beer.

CASANOVA: ACEDIA #3 — I have got to tell you that without rereading everything that has come before (or at least the past two issues and the previous volume, say), I have very little idea what is going on right now. I mean, I get that Bro has forgotten who he is and I remember that from the first two issues, but in terms of issue to issue, this is a bit of a head-scratcher without the old reread after a couple of months off. Hell if it doesn’t look magnificent, though! These might be Peter’s best colors over Brother Moon’s work thus far. I recognized Sasa at least? And at last our hero remembers who he is, even if he hasn’t quite accessed his secret extra-dimensional agent skill set of badassery quite yet. And it is always a delight to tune in to the action band attack of Chabon/Bá metanaut T.A.M.U. glory, though I hope that we get more than three pages next issue. Hey wait, last volume was only like three issues long, seems like, but maybe they were double-sized? I need to figure out what’s going on with all of that. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.