1/18/12

TINY TITANS #48—Plenty goes down as Barbara takes off her mask to reveal that the red hair’s not a wig, even though she’s still rocking Yvonne Craig’s changing room in her lair. But Wonder Girl’s secret orange steals the show, inspiring a romp through Gordon and O'Hara's old disco wardrobe and a fever-dream sequence that might be the most I’ve ever enjoyed this book, just barking mad fun, even before the Fruit Lantern Core show up. A really good time, too much fun, I’m going to miss reading new issues of this book to my kid and having her recite them back to me so so much.


BATMAN #5—Insane! That’s the only word for this issue. Certainly Snyder, but particularly Capullo and Glapion take it To The Next Level. The captions perfectly capture Bruce’s hold on reality and himself slipping away and really, did such a fine job of projecting the reader into the labyrinth with him. The rotational trick is nothing short of brilliant, it was quite the suspenseful feeling to turn the page and have no idea how the next page was going to be oriented, went a long way toward putting us into Bruce’s head. But those last two pages are completely raving. Nothing short of ridiculous.

WONDER WOMAN #5—Mm, I was certainly bummed not to see Mister Chiang in here, but Tony Akins did a serviceable job, smoothed out by Matthew Wilson’s striking palette. With the exception of that last shot of Hera. The wife of Zeus should probably not look like a New Jersey housewife on a bad day. The story remains the most engaging Wonder Woman tale that I’ve read.


PROPHET #21—Man, this thing is gorgeous, glorious. I loved everything about it. The tone of the narration, the kind of Pope/Moebius/Darrow thing that Simon Roy had going on, Richard Ballermann’s eye-popping colors, the six-legged guys raising oonaka, the way Graham’s last two lines seemed to channel that old-school pulp tone of Ed Burroughs or Robert Howard. This book is nothing less than thrilling, a very very welcome addition to the monthly pull. Can’t wait to see what these guys have in store for us.

MORNING GLORIES #15—Probably my favorite issue yet. We get a continuation of Zoe’s flashback from #7 interspersed with her and Hunter tearing it up playing Wood Run war games. I kind of expected them to wind up humping in the forest, but the girl crushing on Hunter threw me for a loop. And of course even with plenty of set-up, sure didn’t see that ending coming. People complaining about not enough mysteries being revealed in this series need to take a walk, this thing’s supposed to roll on until they get to #100, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the mysteries that are in store. As long as character development remains this captivating and unexpected, we’re more than good to go. This is the real deal good stuff, right here.

FABLES #113—Nothing less than a tour de force. When I took a gander at the cover and didn’t see Buckingham’s name, definitely had the “Well, let’s see how we do…” mentality, but this Very Special issue blew me away. Willingham doesn’t know the meaning of the word “peak,” just keeps going up and up, getting better and best and better than best. The flashback to the contest of champions between Lord Karrant of the Westermark and the Adversary’s puppet leading to a fairly surprising retcon (arguably retcon, though I wouldn’t put it past Willingham to have known for years) was, in particular, quite the cracking yarn. It’s always a pleasure to get new sequentials from Mister P. Craig Russell. Ramon Bachs turns in beautiful work. And Adam Hughes always delivers nothing less than immaculate pages. A great deal to enjoy in this single issue. It really is stunning how great this book remains, month in month out, as we head on over into the back half of its tenth year, now.

THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #512—The pressure is on these guys to really make it happen every month to justify the price-tag, and they completely deliver this time out. Nice to see old Henry Hellrung from THE ORDER pop back in, no reason why Fraction can’t just kind of fold that entire situation in over here whenever he wants. Almost four years into the run, these guys are still making it happen for me, rocking quite possibly the best longform Tony Stark story ever told.

AVENGERS #21—Guedes does a fine job pinch-hitting for Acuña, their styles match up pretty well. Spider-Hulks are not to be trifled with. Red Hulk and Storm certainly went down like a house of cards. I guess they all did, really. I dug those two double-page spreads of thin thin panels firing out from the upper-left corner, the perfect way to layout a Quinjet going down. You’ve got to like Maria Hill’s last line, just perfect. So, I guess, paging Luke Cage’s New Avengers?


DAREDEVIL #8—So, this was maybe a stunt to lure Spidey readers over to all the glory going down over here? Waid continues to orchestrate a perfect balance of sharp dialogue, pitch-perfect Murdock narration, dynamic character beats, and superhero action. Of course Felicia’s still working an angle, even though it was completely convincing and perfect that Parker’s desperation drove her into the arms of the hornhead. Beautiful work from Kano and Rodriguez here, as well. This is rapidly shooting up toward the top of my list of favorite monthlies, each issue so rewarding on its own while pushing the ongoing story forward. Really hope Waid’s got 50 or 100 more of these in him.

BEST OF WEEK is honestly too close to call. I could make a pretty convincing argument for it going to BATMAN, PROPHET, FABLES, or DAREDEVIL. And I might have had more fun with Wonder Girl’s dream in TINY TITANS than any of those. And I don't even pick up CHEW in singles. Quite the week, this, all for a measly twenty-five American dollars and four cents!