ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATE ULTIMATES #3—It was such a crowded damn week, I seriously considered leaving this $4 single on the racks, but man, glad I didn’t. Hickman continues to conjure the thunder we remember from the original Millar/Hitch run while making all the plot and character development seem organic, as opposed to the latest OMG,WTF? that Millar dreamed up. That last exchange between Thor and Tony was just about the best dialogue between two characters that I read all week long. I really really loved Tony’s line about the MP followed by the look Thor gave him, Ribic knocked that shit out of the part. It was perfect, felt so true. Which, no mean feat to accomplish in an exchange between the Norse God of Thunder and a genius billionaire in a flying warsuit of armor aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. It would be funny and silly if Ultimate Thor died next issue, from an Ultimate vs. 616 standpoint, though I’m confident that Hickman will find a way to make it break our hearts.
THE RED WING #4—This looked absolutely gorgeous, kudos to Nik Pattera and Rachel Rosenburg. And it was definitely a great concept with a lot of room in which to tell a story. However, I never felt like Hickman sent us the right codes in order to dial into the characters. I mean, obviously the whole father/son dynamic is a universal thing, but there wasn’t enough here to make it seem unique or worth exploring in this admittedly unique context. These people were ciphers. I didn’t care when they died, other than how freaking cool it looked. Certainly not a waste of money, paper, or time, but I walk away from these four issues with a greater degree of graphic titillation than satisfaction.
SECRET AVENGERS #18—Now, this is the real deal, right here. Ellis has been turning in the serious business from page one of #16, but in Aja, editorial finally brings in somebody who can elevate the script, not merely hang on for dear life. Aja is the perfect choice for an issue featuring Shang Chi kung fu-ing the hell out of goons in a space station. A couple of those multi-gravity spreads are straight Escher, as jawdrop cool as anything I can remember running across lately. I seem to recall Ellis complaining online a few months ago about it being hard to dial into the mindset required to generate these scripts, but it doesn’t show, very much rocking the GLOBAL FREQUENCY hyper-espionage done-in-one greatness, but somehow even more streamlined, the adventures of Steve Rogers & Sharon Carter and their crack squad of secret superheroes, alone against the fringe science of the insidious Shadow Council. And improbably, the last two panels elevate the entire thing up into the stratosphere, while simultaneously bringing us back down to Earth and tying up the entire narrative in a neat bow. While winking at the reader. Perfection. I really loved FF, but this right here has got to be BEST OF WEEK.CAPTAIN SWING & THE ELECTRICAL PIRATES OF CINDERY ISLAND #4—It’s been quite some time since #3 came out, but a quick jog back through and I was up to speed on Ellis’s update on the Spring-Heeled Jack legend by way of steampunk humanist electrical sky pirate utopia. Which reads quite a bit differently two months into the Occupy movement, as opposed to two years ahead of it. That ol' Ellis can’t shut his inner futurist off even if he turns the dial back to 1830, it seems. There are no great surprises or swerves here, this one pretty much does everything that it’s supposed to, but all it really has to give you is enough shots of that ship getting rowed through the clouds by electrical oars. I guess I didn’t see that kiss coming. Make that “steampunk humanist electrical sky pirate utopia romance”. Great fun, and if this is indeed Ellis’s final Avatar book, certainly a finish worthy of what’s come before.
WOLVERINE $ THE X-MEN #1—Ah, that’s a Freudian typo right there, we’re going to leave it. This was one of two Marvel $4 books I had to leave on the rack. Thanks for the loaner, Tommy! Not having bought it, I was totally conflicted reading it, because I’m all about the Bachalo, especially on colors, and Aaron kills it, as well, every beat, from Logan and Chuck’s opening stroll to the inevitable and perfectly telegraphed final page. As jaded as reading about and loving these merry mutants for 23 years has made me, I got totally punched in the gut when I hit that double-page spread and he says the name of the school. So good. Quite an ensemble we have here, as illustrated by that nifty little chart in the appendix. Don’t really see how I can be passing this one up every month. Dammit, Marvel! Of course, nothing beats the course schedule, too too great. The writer of SCALPED creating a class taught by Kentucky’s own Samuel J. Guthrie all about comic books, ranging from Kirby to Morrison, is an absolute brainmelt mindfuck.
HULK #1—Ha ha, beards. Who’s writing this, again? This is an interesting pilot, starting Hulk out in a new place and making Banner pretty much Dr. Moreau, but I think I’ll be all right giving this the miss. Though how has Jeff Parker already racked up two trades? Feel like a total asshole for letting those get by me.
THE MIGHTY THOR #7—It’s kind of a strange move to drop the prequel the week after the climax of the entire event, but after their first arc, I’m not going to miss anything by Fraction/Perry. And, yeah, it’s great, timeless, the entire First War of the Serpent in one issue, plus we see Odin sacrifice his eye for wisdom. This event really has generated the best tie-ins I’ve ever encountered.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #630—Ha, Siri? This one seems to have a better command of the English language. Great bit about Where Volstagg Was, so much shit was going down, I definitely forgot to wonder. And perfect, “a boar stuffed with pigeons stuffed with jam.” I’m a sucker for UNCANNY #153esque story-time issues** and this is no exception. You’ve got to love that shot of silly Odin shushing the reader with one finger over his mouth. And “Death to Nazis!” Another great little entry in the canon of stories-about-the-greatness-of-stories (colloquially known as the Gaiman Zone), great fun and crushing at the same time.
Have you noticed that Marvel is jamming out everything they can bi-weekly now in a bid to snatch up more market share? This and FF and UNCANNY X-FORCE for a little while there, as well as AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, have all been cranking off the presses just as fast as they can. What woebegone wallets may come!
SPACEMAN #1—Who can turn down a brand new #1 by the entire team of 100 BULLETS for the price of a mere dollar bill? A less discerning consumer than I, Wednesday night faithful! We already got a ten-page slice a few months back on that STRANGE ADVENTURES one-shot and are thrown right into the middle of it, here. It usually bothers me when artists sign pages in-book, but every single time Risso does it, you’re just like, Yeah, you’re the one. Azzarello, as ever, certainly makes you work for it, inventing an entire dialect that feels authentic, futuristic but plausible. Say? Patricia Mulvihill really is one of the best in the business, such a distinctive style. I’m . . . not exactly sure what happened at the end. After multiple passes. Dude’s on Earth doing a scavenging job, takes a drop of some drug, then we cut back to Mars and he stabilizes the greenhouse pressure before the lights start popping, then there’s popping back on Earth and the ship blows up, and then he’s suddenly rescued the Pitt-Jolie kid analogue? Who turns out to be all sinister? I think is what happened? These folks do not make comic books for stupid people.
FLASH #2—Those augmented cognition pages are brilliant. Fine, fine example of stretching the medium, presenting a story as only comics can. The Quitely We3 panels, right on down to the washed-out colors, just spectacular work. Johns/Manapul nailed it so hard out of the gate last year on the new #1, I was bummed that the relaunch pulled the rug out from under them, but Manapul/Buccellato are cruising along faster than ever. Everything I want from a Flash book, right here.
SUPERMAN #2—This is another good-looking issue, Merino again steps up to the plate and executes what’s got to be one of the most frightening gigs in mainstream comics. And I missed Buccellato’s name in the credit box last month, never heard of the guy, suddenly he’s coloring SUPERMAN and FLASH and co-writing the latter. Not bad, fella! This isn’t like the most amazing run of the character that I’ve come across, but it’s rock-solid. Feels kind of like reading a little-known 80s arc, guess that’s when Perez crystallized his writing style. Particularly the way Superman/Lois beat the bad guy, made me feel like a little kid again. In a good way. Totally on board with this arc, but likely bailing when Creative does, sorry Giffen/Jurgens.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #2—This story still feels a bit slight and quite decompressed***. The combination of Mikel Janin and Ulises Arreola is enough to keep me around for a while, though. For a book with “dark” in the title, these are some lush pages. Wish Milligan would get it moving, though. It might be better if we hadn’t seen the Enchantress go crazy like three times in as many years. Give us something new! You are unshackled from the chains of continuity! Methinks I need to get a bit more serious about tracking down Milligan/Bachalo’s original SHADE run in the bargain bins.
ALL-STAR WESTERN #2—Another excellent slice of comics from these boys, right here. Yeah, if you can only get twenty pages out of Moritat, you probably want to sign up Jordi Bernet for a backup. It really is ingenious for Gray/Palmiotti to embed their guy in Ur-Gotham, steep the Hex fun up in all that dynastic craziness that Snyder and friends just started rolling over in GATES OF GOTHAM a little while back. To the point that it’s like they used math, a super quantum computer to spit out the optimum way to sell a relaunched JONAH HEX to readers without artistically compromising what’s come before. That double-page spread followed by the pin-up of Hex is the business. Just the colors of the sky, alone. Easily one of the coolest books resulting from the relaunch shakeup.
*Except, I guess, for maybe CASANOVA, though that thing is such a terror unto itself, it doesn’t seem right or maybe fair comparing it to anything else, like THE WIRE and all the other TV shows.
**Walter dropping the noir business on FRINGE last season being a recent standout.
***only two pages of Constantine again? Really? Not nearly as offensive until you start counting the ones with Dove on them, I mean, seriously.
Didn't Jason Aaron write both Wolverine & The X-Men AND the new HULK #1? I liked them both enough to be intrigued, but I'll probably only stick around for Hulk in single issues.
ReplyDeleteHe did, in fact. Two of the only three Marvel books to crack the Top 20! All praise to The Relaunch (bowing). I'm of opposite inclination to you, particularly with Silvestri bailing after #3.
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