BATMAN #23 — Snyder/Capullo/Miki/Plascencia continue to
bring the sequential justice. But here we run into a problem that I thought
these guys were going to sidestep. Just from the title alone. Don’t get me
wrong, the entire issue is immaculately crafted, every beat honed to
perfection, it’s great . . . except it looks like they are going to be
rebooting YEAR ONE, after all. Because Bruce has his “I shall become a bat”
moment. Yet again. And it looks gorgeous, this crew couldn’t have produced
better looking pages, but I’m afraid I have to draw the line at saying, “Nope,
what Miller produced didn’t happen, this is what happened.” I know that we get
origin reboots all the time, poor baby Kal-El seems to crash into Earth about
every five years now like clockwork but this feels different, like they’re
positioning it as canon that’s dominant to what is arguably the greatest Batman
story of all time (if not Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT, I’m not sure anyone’s going
to make a serious claim for any story other than those two). I’ve been rocking
this arc thus far under the tacit assumption that we were kind of threading
through the early months of Miller/Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece. I mean, he’s
obviously in Gotham so it’s not like we’re really in some zero-year period
that’s taking place entirely before that. I’m not usually one that quibbles for
how this particular story slots in with that one over there, but they’re
treading on some pretty sacred ground here. Producing five-star top-of-the-line
business, but treading nonetheless.
BATMAN: LIL’ GOTHAM #5 — And it’s Mr. Freeze’s turn. Of
course this take on him is heartbreaking. Was the whole set-up with Nora a part
of canon before “Heart of Ice” or is that something that the comic book
absorbed as well? That first panel on Page 6 has got to be homage to the
claustrophobic shot of him piloting the Bat-tank in Miller’s second issue of
THE DARK KNIGHT (TRIUMPHANT). Of course, the bit with Damian licking the
Popsicle is perfect. And it’s still absurd how great it is to see Barbara as
Oracle, that isn’t getting old. Even better seeing her and Dick out for Mexican
food while the kids deal with Bane and the greatest Scrabble game ever plays
out in the Bat-Cave. The three-pronged negative response to Zatanna’s backwards
spelling question is a high point in another issue that consistently rewards.
ASTRO CITY #3 — Oh good, last issue wasn’t a done-in-one.
Because that would have been a pretty bleak way to take it out, there. It turns
out our protagonist is every bit as heroic as those high-profile folks she
works for as she goes in deep for weeks, risking life and limb to correct her
mistake. Anderson/Sinclair’s art manages to convey a sense of the fantastic
while remaining grounded and Busiek breathes life into another memorable
non-powered individual with a distinct voice and unique set of foibles. Man, I
really missed this book.
STAR WARS #8 — Well, if Carlos D’Anda finally needed some
breathing room, Ryan Kelly is one of the guys at the top of my list who I’d
love to see fill in on this, am a huge fan of LOCAL and was also impressed by
the way he threw down cityscapes in those two New York minis with Wood. And
seems like he did a NORTHLANDERS arc, come to think of it, but never mind that
now, we’re a long time ago, etc, and it is all going down, with Luke &
Wedge taken voluntary prisoners, Han & Chewie as ever barely evading Boba
Fett by the skin of their teeth, and Leia on the verge of pulling an
end-of-the-first-act of EMPIRE bailout with her R2-unit. It runs in the family!
This one is a pretty good time all around, though Wood manages to let
contemporary slang creep in once again with Solo’s last line being “not so
much.” You didn’t crash-land in Sunnydale, Han.
SAGA #13 — Ah, a first page that doesn’t scream out to us
how shocking it is. Well played, BKV, you have managed another surprise. D.
Oswald Heist staggers on-panel in this one in a way that is immediately
evocative of my good friend Brad Ellison, so that is a serious positive. I
still don’t think it’s in any way correct that this book stomped HAWKEYE all
over the Eisners but probably need to just get over it. Ellison told me to!
EAST OF WEST #5 — It’s official, Xiaolian is indeed the best
character populating this blistering pile of madness, an opinion codified
courtesy of the exposition montage of our star-crossed couple’s history,
interesting as hell, beginning with a shot of her training as a child that
looks a lot like an homage to the Damian/Talia shots Kubert and Burnham were
rocking over there down the way just recently. Frank Martin does a cool kind of
washed out thing with the colors to differentiate these flashbacks. Dragotta
continues to drop nothing but jaw-dropping business with every panel. Um. But
their kid is pretty smart. That’s a wild page Hickman spins there with him. And
what a final encounter at the end. Five issues in, not only is this not letting
up, it just keeps escalating. Strong work.
THE TRUE LIVES OF THE FABULOUS KILLJOYS #3 — Mmm, it’s
looking more like my buddy Markisan is right. This just isn’t what it should
be. The art is killer, but I don’t care about these characters. It’s not enough
for the Grant-Morrison guy to say “Run!” like Grant Morrison did in the video
that one time. The original Killjoys mythology was so rich and hinted at dozens
of thrilling adventures and a magic that is missing from these pages. Not even
counting if you hold this up next to THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, which isn’t even
fair. I want more but am expecting less by the month.
SAVAGE DRAGON #190 — I owe many thank yous and much
gratitude to Brother Matt Doman who is such an ardent supporter of this title
from Acolyte to Zealot that he straight up called my shop from Mississippi and
had them add it to my Pull. All you can do at that point is check that business
out, my friends! Of course, I am familiar with Larsen’s work from his post-McFarlane/pre-Bagley
run on AMAZING back in the day and I believe that I picked up the MEGATON MAN
crossover that happened in the nineties, but I went into this issue pretty much
blind, thinking that it was going to be an interesting test of “The Man’s”
maxim that “every issue is somebody’s first.” How essential would familiarity
with the previous 189 issues’ worth of continuity be to me enjoying what was
going on in these pages? I have to say that Larsen passes with flying colors,
not only did I have a blast racing through this but it made me want to go back
for the rest of the story. I was most impressed by the pacing, the tightly
focused cuts between the various members of the ensemble, who all seemed to be
doing something important and that I was sorry to cut away from but then hey,
look over here! And over here! And just when I was thinking that there was no
way that Larsen could Kirby it up any harder, we get the penultimate page,
chock full of krackle. Pulse-pounding! Completely on-board with this.
WORST IN RECENT MEMORY: FANTASTIC FOUR #011 — I was pretty
disappointed to read the announcement that Brevoort made the day this came out
that Fraction suddenly wasn’t going to be able to carry his load and finish
what he started with the double-run of writing this book and its sister-title
FF. The reason for this is because I have really been enjoying the story
despite my disbelief that anyone would be able to follow the absolutely
devastating Hickman run, really got invested in it and of course wanted to see
the original mind that generated it see it through to its natural conclusion.
This was the least bit mitigated by the announcement that next month Karl Kesel
and Ben Allred would be taking over the scripting duties based on Fraction’s
plots. Now, Kesel inked the unforgettable Waid/Ringo run and wrote a swell
little story for the Reed & Sue wedding special that I picked up for my
little girl last summer at Mile High (she is crazy for that issue), so at least
that’s someone who’s already got history with the title and is more than likely
to see things through in a way that will be entertaining and a good tonal fit for
what’s come before, especially since I presume Bagley will at least continue.
And Ben Allred? What’s not to love? Now it’s all the way a family affair, and
what better book for that to be the case? So, you know, I took the news as well
as I could have. Fraction has to write INHUMANS. Or INHUMANITY. Or those are
two things. And of course he’s killing it on SATELLITE SAM. Oh, and there are
those two more Image books that he’s got coming out, SEX CRIMINALS with Zdarsky
and ODY-C, right? The gender-flip Odyssey reboot? Sure, it would have been nice
(or, another way to put it, would have made good on the implicit covenant a
writer who comes on board the first issues of two new linked monthly titles
makes with his readers) if he could have maybe just hung in another four or
five months to finish what he started before launching a new Marvel series and
three additional new creator-owneds, but who am I to say?
So, clearly I had kind of a bad taste in my mouth before I
turned to the credits page of this issue to discover that this guy I’ve never
heard of, Christopher Sebela, is not a last-minute fill-in artist but instead a
credited writer. Way to get out in front of it, Brevoort. But you know, reset,
I’ve never heard of this guy. Maybe he’s great. I certainly raised my eyebrow
at the temerity of this new young turk Scott Snyder dragging in Stephen King to
try and boost sales on his new little Vertigo book, and it turned out he was a
pretty okay writer all by himself, there. Always give everyone a chance,
Wednesday Night Faithful! And so away we go:
-First page, no hiccups. Bagley/Rubinstein/Mounts doing it,
as ever. I’m not exactly blown away by the interaction between Reed &
Valeria but probably have the critical dials bristling and too turned up.
There’s nothing objectively wrong with this page.
-Oh no, right there on the second page, third panel. He’s
got Valeria saying “Literally.” Christ on a crutch. I have mentioned before
that I can’t stand it when writers drop this modern-day verbal malapropism into
dialogue and then editors don’t do their job and catch it. Wood did it twice
each in two issues of STAR WARS, #s 1 and 7. Terrible, there. On the flip-side,
I think it’s totally all right when some teenagers drop it in ALL-NEW X-MEN,
especially when you remember the old stories of Bendis going to the mall with a
notebook and eavesdropping on kids to get up-to-the minute vernacular for dialogue
for ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN. Which didn’t sound that creepy a dozen years ago. But
I digress. It works if you believe that the character would actually drop a
“literally” where it has no business being and in a situation in which
subtracting the word would cause the sentence to have the same meaning. Bendis
gets a thumbs-up last week for doing the same thing that drives me instantly
bananas here because isn’t Valeria one of the smartest smartest people in the
Marvel Universe? All right, but isn’t she still like three or four? She’s
emulating the teenage dialogue she hears around? Ironically or satirically,
even, let’s say. I am insane about “literally.” We’ll give Sebela a pass. On
with the issue.
-Now she’s calling her brother “Stupid Franklin” and
squabbling with Johnny like they’re siblings, too. Huh.
-Page Six, now we’re quoting L O S T episode titles. Cute.
At least it was from the time travel season . . .
-But then, oh no. Next panel. One of the alien guides drops
another “literally.” A “quite literally,” even. The word virus has spread to
Celeritas! Perhaps via Valeria. This is starting to feel less like a choice and
more like bad writing. “Chronal explosives. Time bombs,” are all the cool words
you need in one balloon, I promise you. We don’t need the see-what-I-did-there?
with the follow-up, man.
-Next page, pointing out that a fake accent is shitty does
not mitigate its shittiness.
-Page eight. She just . . . she just said it again. Three
“literally”s in eight pages. I’m . . . I just can’t . . .
-Great. Page Ten. The two books converge. The meeting of the
Johnny Storms. I should be pumping my fist in cross-over glory but am
apoplectic that Fraction set all this up so well, bailed, and left us stuck with
this literal hack.
-Page Eleven. fuuuuuuuuuuck. He’s got the average down to
one in less than three pages now.
-Page Eighteen. Might as well toss in Jack Bauer’s
catchphrase while you’re at it. I am battling despair that this book that I was
digging so much can fall this hard, this fast. This Sebela guy lives in
Portland, I see, so I guess he and Fraction are buddies and he had to knock out
this whole thing Kordey-style over the weekend and then there wasn’t time for
an editor to at least shave out all the literallys and crank this up to a
mediocre script instead of one of the most offensive pieces of shit that I have
ever staggered wild-eyed though in recent memory. Jesus wept. Save us, Karl
Kesel.
WOLVERINE #008 —Now, I was really taken with the first arc
of this volume, Cornell/Davis/Farmer/Hollingsworth all clearly brought their
A-game and it was very gratifying to see what top creators could do with this
admittedly oversaturated character if given free rein. It turns out they were
just getting started. The hook here is so straightforward and brilliant, it’s
hard to believe no one’s stumbled upon it before now: Logan loses his healing
factor. The effect that this has upon him is something that is just beginning
to be explored but the most interesting bit thus far occurs when Cornell breaks
the “Show, don’t tell” rule and has Storm just straight up relay nuances that
we as readers are not privy to, the sound of his voice, how raw it is, like
he’s always shivering. That is some serious evocative imagery that dialed me
right into the man who finds himself suddenly confronting his mortality in a
way that he has never had to before. Plotwise, we move along with acquiring The
Host with a side of love triangle between T’Challa, Storm, and our protagonist
with a nice reversal there at the end that plays well. The art is once again
spectacular and some of the best in the business. Alan Davis cannot be praised
or revered enough, the man is a consummate storytelling master, dynamic action,
interesting framing and angles, and some of the strongest acting through facial
expression this side of Kevin Maguire. It’s hard to believe how chamelonic Matt
Hollingsworth’s style is, the way the guy completely gets out of the way and
just does whatever best suits the pages, this is a very good looking but much
more by-the-numbers type of superhero gig that straddles the line between the
flatter work that’s happening over on HAWKEYE or the impressionistic washes
splashing through THE WAKE. Top drawer, all around. One issue in and I already
can’t wait to have the whole thing in trade up on a shelf to devour in a single
sitting with no ads.
UNCANNY X-MEN #015 — Frazer Irving! I didn’t know you were
coming back! Just assumed it was one and done. Terrific news. This is all
fairly standard business. Mutants stand around and talk about things and
develop their character, there are some powers, an angry mob, the demon
sorceress gets accidentally skipped forward in time, a former nemesis steals
the Blackbird (is it still a Blackbird? Did they get the Blackbird? It seems
like Scott should get it), fairly standard business. Consistently entertaining.
Bendis!
BEST OF WEEK: INFINITY #1 — What a terribly well done and
accessible Big Event first issue. Hickman’s standard PREVIOUSLY IN… montage
gets dumped in favor of just re-running two pages from NEW AVENGERS #6 before
we launch into white-sheet title-card frenzy. What has been a standard Hickman
graphic beat finds new narrative utility here as a transition between the many
different scenes and ensembles that come firing our way in this first issue. Predictably,
Cheung/Morales(&friends)/Ponsor completely blow it up on art. Just that
page of the Outrider making planetfall and hitting stealth mode over the city
alone, a ridiculous level of greatness. But how wonderful is that title page?
48 characters, a dozen of whom I don’t think we’ve ever heard of, spanning five
different groups and then Abigail Brand, Thanos, and the Skrulls are all off by
themselves. Immediately, the reader is plunged into the depth of the scope of
this event. Why can’t we just get a straight-up SPACEKNIGHTS OF GALADOR series?
Paging Joe Casey, I would read the hell out of that. And, um, that doomed Sanno
kid, the citizen of Galador, looked kind of exactly like Luke Skywalker in
EPISODE IV, the white shirt from Tattooine and everything. His father’s father
was a knight? And fought in the Wraith Wars? We are only a couple of membranes
away from the parallel universe containing the Jedi, I tell you what. But,
wait, Galador! Quit burning everything, Hickman! And but what’s the deal over
on the Moon? Black Bolt’s secret-within-a secret makes it look like the
Illuminati’s former incarnation was a bunch of Tolkien kings and queen. Cheung
gives us the requisite amount of krackle when Black Bolt suits up. That
Outrider is a resilient little cuss, gets his arm torn off and endures a
whisper from the king, not sure we’ve see that before. And over to the Avengers
disembarkation. I kind of feel like something very bad is going to happen to
Sam and/or Bobby, Hickman’s writing them like such douchebags, seems like
seeding the potential for tragic growth or just sudden poignant massacre. But
as we wind up, everything looks suitably ominous, the stage is set, the
extensive cast is in place, and the intergalactic mayhem is set to begin. This
is the culmination of everything that Hickman has been writing toward since his
run began just eight months ago. What’s so impressive about this is that it
functions on that level, not as much paying off what’s been set up but setting
that process in motion, the beginning of the end, as the characters keep saying,
but then it gives every indication of seeming to also function as a
self-contained premiere issue, not relying on anything that has come up before
and conveying any information that a new reader needs to know in a lean but not
too overly expositional manner. Which is really much more of a high-wire act
than people realize. The economy and razor-sharp cuts of Hickman’s script belie
the ruthless efficiency of a master craftsman who has barely begun to unleash
his full narrative fury. I know I say this like every three years, but if this
one stays the course and lives up to the promise of its first issue, which I
have every indication to believe that it will, INFINITY has the potential to be
the richest, most satisfying Marvel event since SECRET WARS.
No comments:
Post a Comment