JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #631—Fie on serious recap pages! Glad I read Fraction first. That advice probably should have made the serious recap page. What a great set-up, Loki conspiring to kill Tanarus with the reader kind of on-board, after all these years. Take that God of Thunder out, little man! I’m pretty sure “forgot” on page 3, panel 3 should be “forgotten.” Hilarious line, “I also know what memes ARE. It’s a catchy idea.” That set-up somehow makes Loki dropping “BFF” later on inoffensive, no small trick. And absolutely crushing last page, I kind of just want to stop reading this series right here, just because it’s the perfect beat to end on, you without question cannot get better than cycling back to Simonson’s first page. Gillen has done first-rate storytelling on his entire run, here.
THE NEW AVENGERS #18—The execution of this is tight and right, I mean, Bendis makes the term “professional” seem like a gaping understatement, has been batting the industry around like a piñata for years now. I do question him heading right back to the well with this Dark Avengers malarkey, however. We just did this. Like a year and a half ago. This kind of thing would have been a lot more effective if he’d let Norman rot for longer than like a year, reader-time, and the whole Dark Avenger period had just a few more years to get all freshened up with that warm nostalgic glow. I passed on the DA series when it was coming out and don’t care for it getting shoehorned into this title that I’ve been enjoying up until now. Not that I’m not still enjoying it, but do you see? If Bendis/Marvel put out DARK AVENGERS volume 2 #1 for three dollars and ninety-nine cents, I would not buy a ticket on that train and kind of resent it docking in here at this particular station.
MARVEL POINT ONE #.1(or something, I guess?)—This is a pretty solid anthology by a whole gang of Marvel’s A-list guys, as well as other fellas who step up to the plate real well. With the exception of Jeph Loeb. Way to completely kill the momentum of a double-page splash Phoenix manifestation planet-razing by having Nova say “epic fail.” It’s Marvel Comics, not fucking Attack of the Show. So terrible. But there are some other interesting bits in here. Lapham/de la Torre’s AoA series actually looks worth trying out, interesting dynamic with that cast of characters. And I could give a shit about the Scarlet Spider but found the short a decent read. Quite liked Van Lente/Larroca’s Yin & Yang. And they certainly sequenced this right, ramp up with Fraction/Dodson’s second short lead-in to their DEFENDERS channeling plenty of that old Gerber crazy followed by Bendis and Hitch absolutely fucking it up with some of the trusty old Avengers Ultron madness. All framed by an intriguing sequence by Brubaker/Pulido. A pretty well-put-together little sampler, this.
THE UNWRITTEN #31—Well, yes, our little wizard is all grown up. Tommy Taylor goes on the offensive, much to the disconsternation of Lizzie Hexam. As ever, the multimedia page was the best one of the entire issue. I would be so all over an actual Tommy Taylor and the _________ novel ghost-written by Carey.
FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #3—This one really comes into its own as the squad has to battle The Titans of Monster Planet. Lemire delivers a rocking pulp plot, but it’s really Alberto Ponticelli’s scratchy linework that’s the star of this show.
DEMON KNIGHTS #3—I’m kind of waning on this one. It’s not terrible, but isn’t doing a great job of dialing me into the characters. Cornell is certainly trying to blow Johns’s skirt up with the serious mayhem, gore, and violence, though. I was just making it to the end of the issue saying to myself, Well, the only crazy thing was that priest getting his face all melted off and dragged to Hell, which, you know, a fine baseline, but then we get the plucky young heroine decapitated on the last page. Making it happen.
GREEN LANTERN #3—Man, I didn’t think that Geoff Johns could heart anybody bigger than Hal or Barry, but it looks like ol’ Sinestro has been wearing the one ring to rule them all this entire time. Really digging the former Green Lantern of Space Sector 1417 taking the lead of this book and making it happen on good old 2814. Very much hoping he doesn’t get shuffled off to the side after the first arc. Mahnke and friends continue to deliver very sharp and clean lines for what feels like ten years running now, even though it’s probably been more like three.
BATWOMAN #3—Again, Williams shows up with a comic book that it’s almost unfair to compare to any other, just because it’s so out of everybody else’s league. He’s playing in a different sandbox, my friends! Consistently turning in the most engaging fight scenes that I can remember running across in some time (Quitely and Stewart a little while back in BATMAN & ROBIN being the only ones who even come close), that trick of slashing time with illuminated frames within the same panel, such a stylistic marvel. It’s downright unnerving how he’ll draw/color Kate and Betty in different styles within the same panel, dude’s just spitting fire on top his game. BEST OF WEEK, no problem.BATMAN & ROBIN #3—Tomasi/Gleason go six for six in their overall run, a hat trick on this latest iteration. I’m really enjoying this title’s emphasis on the new father/son dynamic that’s suddenly in effect, tons of great bits sprinkled throughout. Does the chess game at the top indicate that Bruce was manipulating Damian into disobeying him and serving as live bait? Afraid that Tomasi got the transmission garbled on that last panel as Damian drove off, what Alfred really said was, “I shan’t, Master Damian. I shan’t.” With this book consistently delivering gripping tales of the family dynamic duo, Morrison’s homestretch set to kick off here any time now, rumors of Daniel not crapping all over DETECTIVE, and Snyder/Capullo/Glapion absolutely murdering the eponymous title, to say nothing of J.H.III up above, this franchise has rarely, if ever, been in such good shape.
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