10/10/12

BATMAN #13—You know, I didn’t realize that it’s been three months since I read a Snyder/Capullo BATMAN comic, but that’s what happens when creative cranks out eleven comics in under eleven months. The batteries need a chance to recharge and, oh, the machine is humming along faster than ever. Capullo/Glapion/Plascencia are monsters, I’m not sure there’s an art team working today hitting every single storytelling mark with such precision, intensity, and consistency. Old Mayor Hady’s attitude doesn’t indicate that much intelligence, I feel like I’d be a lot more grateful for police protection if the Joker was calling me out. And on the other end of the intelligence spectrum, you’ve got to give respect to the Clown Prince of Crime for leaving a clue in acrostic additives found in Joker Venom, that’s some crazy kind of taunting. And Jock on the backup, editorial can’t expect to pull in more serious talent than that. This was a very very good Batman vs Joker comic. And the fun is only beginning.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #13—Zombies? That is a stretch. Not that it can’t happen in Gotham, I mean, obviously, anything can, our boy was running around as a vampire just a few years ago, seems like, but for all the depth of the rogues’ gallery, as well as this team’s obvious gift at creating new additions, just going for zombies feels pretty rote. The undead fellow I want to see this duo fighting was born on a Monday. The opening scene just about makes up for it, though, watching the solar eclipse from orbit is rock-solid characterization of Bat-parenting. And it’s amazing how devastating it is, that one panel when Damian does something as simple as just thank his father, because he’s come so far, it’s so crazy just to have him expressing straightforward gratitude like that. This creative team is still tearing it up and I’m willing to give them some slack about the zombies, but there better be one really charming motherfucking pig coming up here next issue.

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #13—It never occurred to me with what great ease one might fold this one in to the whole Red/Green situation going on over in SWAMP THING and ANIMAL MAN because, of course, Frank is the Anti-Rot. Just like over in those other two books, Rotworld appears to be smashing the status quo for this book to pieces. I hope Nina makes it. Frank deserves a chance at happiness in companionship! Ponticelli/Faucher/Villarrubia continue to turn in the same caliber of work that has made this title such a slam-dunk since September last. My favorite image is Page Seven, The Leviathan surfacing, particularly that last shot with the teeeeeeny-tiny protagonist steering the beast with sword and force of will. Am looking forward to seeing how this interweaves with the other two Rotworld titles going forward, it’s a wonderful thing when books you already enjoy on their own individual merit intersect organically. With a little bit of science to help them along.

MORNING GLORIES #22—Another solid outing, no real shocking moments happen, but I guess you can’t drop those every single moment. I guess the return at the end is a big deal. I had just seen LOOPER right before diving into the evening’s comics so was very much screaming that at the page during the 12 MONKEYS/PRIMER/BACK TO THE FUTURE listing. I really need to see PRIMER again, one time isn’t even close to enough.

CONAN #9—The Cimmeria trilogy comes to a conclusion and is resolved in a manner to my liking. Was fully acclimated to Vasilis Lolos’s art style by the start of this issue and found it to be a better fit for the series than last month. I will be glad to get back out on the open sea, though.

THE MASSIVE #5—Wood benches 2/3 of his main characters and we zoom in on someone we haven’t met yet, a girl named Ryan who’s the sole American onboard The Kapital. As has been the case thus far with this series, Wood does a deft job juggling rapid-fire characterization for people we’ve just barely met with enormous ideas in keeping with the global scope of this series and its premise. In most ways, this is a lot like what Kirkman’s got going over with THE WALKING DEAD. Of course there are no zombies, but this story is all about survival in the face of worldwide disaster and the lengths to which a given group of characters are willing to go in order to keep living. Compelling material.

THE AVENGERS #31—This felt very very slight. I do hold these $4/20-pg Marvel books to a higher standard, certainly don’t have a calculator out while reading it but it would be nice if I felt roughly 133% as entertained as I do reading a DC title. Or DD or FF, for that matter. Not happening here. This is the first part of Bendis’s endgame and it’s nothing more than a few widescreen decompressed pages of some-mysterious-person-who’s-surely-The-Wasp having big adventure, her identity all but confirmed at the end when we learn that her scenes are taking place inside the Microverse. The rest of the book is basically clean-up dialogue from AvX. I guess the 100K or so kids will buy anything but I wish old Bendis was packing the individual issues just a little bit tighter here in his home-stretch. Which I still fully expect to be crushing when all is said and done, let it be known.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #1—All right, that was bananas. I wasn’t planning on giving any new Marvel relaunches a shot except for Hickman and Fraction, but I seriously regretted not picking up Remender on UNCANNY X-FORCE once that got going, plus I was really lying to myself if I thought I was going to be able to resist my boy Cassaday on interiors. And I’m glad I did, this is nothing less than summer blockbuster explodo fun, and I mean that in the best possible way. This is, at its heart, such a ridiculous cash-grab premise for a title that the only way to way to make it work is to paint it just as ludicrous as possible with the absurdity factor dialed all the way up. And that is exactly what happens here. Which is never expressed more perfectly than that last page, hilarious and absolutely stark raving batshit, I am for it in a big way.

BEST OF WEEK: FANTASTIC FOUR #611—I really don’t know what to say. I’ve loved this run so much. A celebration of family and the importance of the relationships with our loved ones and the effect that they have upon us, all played out against the glorious crackling science-fiction backdrop that Jack Kirby stocked with all the impossible hyperdense imagination the narrative could stand over the course of nine years. Given the massive ensemble that Hickman has painstakingly crafted over the course of the past four years, it’s a very interesting choice to limit this final issue of the flagship title to only four characters, only one of whom is eponymous. But it works. In the course of these twenty pages, we see a universe created and then turn on its creator on the seventh day because He crafted the place so perfectly in His own image, who must then be rescued by his surrogate daughter and the man he hates most in all of creation, his best friend, all effected through the course of powerful and pitch-perfect character work that resonates throughout all space and time.