1/15/13

FANTASTIC FOUR FINALE #016 — Well, it wouldn’t be a fitting end to this run without the replacement guys zinging off a couple of more gratuitous “literally”s. It actually made me kind of instantly nostalgic to see them. I am a sucker for recurring motifs. Even consistent and remarkably persistent grammar-mangling ones. There has been no small amount of complaining and consternation from this corner about the quality of this run since Fraction bailed to go write INHUMANS or as it turns out slam out a gang of really excellent creator-owned material. So, here on the flagship title we’ve got Karl Kesel scripting to finish up Fraction’s plot with Raffaele Ienco on pencils and inks along with mainstay color-beast Paul Mounts holding down the fort after all this time. I’m pretty sure that Mounts was the longest-running colorist by the end of Hickman’s run and he’s still hanging out. And they do a pretty fair job of bringing it all home, particularly considering that the first two guys weren’t even onboard four issues ago. It certainly comes off much better than when Joe Ahearne and Stuart Immonen had to perform the exact same thankless task for the also-16-issue-long Millar/Hitch run a few years back. But the two FFs come together to battle Doom the Annihilating Conqueror for the fate of the multiverse and half of them die but it all still turns out just peachy keen. If it was just the main story, this would be a competent but somewhat lackluster finale. However, in his last month on this title, Brevoort wisely shuttles over the Allreds (and Quinones-in-his-insanely-Allredian-style) from the superior sister title for a ten-page backup that really really delivers, nothing but character beats during a barbecue on the moon that wraps up everything to complete satisfaction. Almost to the point that I barely feel like I need to read #016 of FF next week. I was feeling nervous from that glimpse during the main feature of Scott confronting Doom over in the other title but then there was that shot in the backup of Darla cuddling with Scott on the moon, so I guess everything turned out fine. Not that I’m not going to pick up the other finale, certainly not, it’s just that this backup did such an effective job serving as closure for several character arcs. The art is a thing of beauty and the way that the conversation with each character ends is just perfect. Shulkie swatting Ben, Johnny shrugging at the prospect of a music career, Sue basking in Ulana’s glow, Reed craning his neck to bring Val in on this latest bit of thrilling science, and Val arm-in-arm with Onome, that last one really did something to me. And the line was just totally thrown in, right? It isn’t like bread and circuses have ever been a thing before or are providing some kind of emotional payoff, but it still really worked. And a terrific last splash. I do look forward to the final finale of FF #016, even if the whole thing takes place before the backup here. A fine effort from all concerned but the team on the backup really knocked it out of the park

ALL-NEW X-MEN #021 — I know that Marvel is a ravenous greed-driven capital-devouring juggernaut that nothing can stop, but it wouldn’t break my heart if this went down to monthly to just maybe set it up so that the regular A-list art team can draw every issue. Peterson/Silva would be fine in any other situation but Immonen/von Grawbadger/Gracia put such a distinctive stamp on this title, their presence is always missed. That said, what a seriously cool move bringing in Brent Anderson to draw the opening flashback with William Stryker. Man kills, y’all! Plotwise, this was the most by-the-numbers this series has been thus far. Team in trouble, team gets out of trouble via mutant powers and engaging character interaction. Not bad but not one of the best books on the rack like it usually is. Hoping for a return to form next month. Ha! I mean next week, of course. Keep ’em coming! BEEEEENDDIIIIISSSS!

UNCANNY X-MEN #016 — Well, I hope the titles at the end don’t mean that Magneto is leaving this book in favor of a solo title because the dynamic of the triumvirate of him, Scott, and Emma is one of the most compelling aspects of this ensemble. Once again, Chris Bachalo completely knocks it out on pencils and colors and his four inkers do fine work subsuming their individual tics into a seamless blended style throughout the issue. I was really thinking that Magneto was about to take over Madripoor as a new sort of Island M but he certainly had other ideas. He got very angry at the end of this issue!

DAREDEVIL #035 — Man. These guys are so good that when the Serpent Society guys drop the secret origin of Daredevil on Page Six, even though we’ve sat through it a hundred times in a hundred different ways, it’s still beautiful. A lot of that comes down to Javier Rodriguez’s choice of palette but of course Chris Samnee is a beast as well. Waid does squeeze in a rooftop “literally” with Elektra, unfortunately. It’s not technically abuse of the term but I’m just really sick of the word. And that is a serious destruction cliffhanger to drop here as the last one of this volume. But doesn’t the prosecution always call their witnesses first? Or do they just do things funny up in that thar big city?

BATMAN: LIL’ GOTHAM #10—Since the pin-up that first invoked this series into existence, Dustin Nguyen has been cresting through a career-high executed with such a degree of taste and craft that almost nobody seems to even so much as realize or be talking about it. He has all this while been conducting a master-class in storytelling, drawing up all the sequentials in marker with every single panel rendered to an arguably perfect degree of detail, never too much or too little, in kind of a neverending jawdropping sequence whose magnitude accrues with each subsequent panel for coming up on a single calendar year, now. And with the help of Derek Fridolfs on script, Nguyen paints resonant and immediate portraits of the entire Gotham ensemble, evoking Bill Watterson’s finest work. Seriously, CALVIN & HOBBES is my all-time favorite strip, I’ve read them all, etc, plus besides that, I am more than willing to argue anyone up down and all around about how “Sparrow” is, bare-minimum, the third-greatest issue of LOCKE & KEY ever, so please believe this trained eye when I tell you that here, for these next last couple of months, we’re getting maximum-wattage-level Watterson-grade greatness and everyone should just delight in this series for as long as we are able.

JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #2 — Man, I want to hang with this due to the pedigree of the writers alone. But the ensemble dynamic is really not working. I would like to think that they are gearing it to a less frustrating situation but I’m not sure that I’m going to be along for that much more of a ride. This should be so much better.

PROPHET #42 — Quite the pastel-soaked departure here as Ron Wimberly gives us eighteen pages of one-man-band (story/art/colors) on a Diehard flashback. Which isn’t a bad thing. He’s got some serious pastels happening in his palette and is rocking a European sensibility to his style that looks like something derived from HEAVY METAL. Which of course feels right at home in this book. Plotwise, I’m not sure that we get enough meat to justify burning an entire issue on this story that doesn’t particularly offer new insight into the character that informs what’s happening now, or at least not that I can see. Still a lot of pretty pictures to look at. However. The five-page backup “Frog & Fly” by Polly Guo is really really good, beautifully written and drawn and terribly affecting. You know you’re always going to get quality at the back of this book, but I’ve never seen the backup just roll up and smoke the main feature to such an extent. Terrific work.

VELVET #3 — An entire season’s worth of intrigue in another issue as Velvet Templeton breaks into a prison to follow up her only lead on X-14’s missing day. But of course nothing is as it seems and everything goes terribly south on the penultimate page. Another quality serial installment from Brubaker/Epting/Breitweiser, they make kicking ass and completely knocking it out of the park every time look like just something you do.

ASTRO CITY #8 — All right, this one is really humming along now. Glad that it isn’t already over. Winged Victory is a terribly compelling character in her own right, but then Busiek doubles-down here with full-on trinity action and offers an intriguing tweak of the time-honored World’s Finest dynamic as played out here between Samaritan and the new Confessor. Brent Anderson seems to crank it up a bit on art, not that he was ever lacking, but this issue has layouts that are just a bit more dynamic with that last double-page splash really standing out as an image that can hang with the best that we’ve ever seen from this series. Which is really saying something.

BEST OF WEEK: WRAITH #3 — Now, this is certainly the real business right here! As much as I have enjoyed the previous two installments, we are now confronted with a situation in which all of the players have already been established and we have the entire issue to enjoy Charles Talent Manx III in his proper element from the get-go. And let me tell you, that gentleman gives every impression of being incapable of opening his mouth without a veritable snowstorm of bon mots springing forth as wise as they are charmingly phrased! Charles Paul Wilson III and Jay Fotos continue to provide artistic interpretations that are every bit as horrifying as the images conjured by the prose from which this character originally sprang forth. This is most particularly in evidence on the final page of the issue, which was actually a fair bit worse than I EVER pictured. And I can certainly imagine quite a lot!

MIRACLEMAN #1 — All right, I didn’t buy the new remastered reprint Marvel’s George Lucas Special Edition because I’ve already got the first eight issues of the Eclipse singles and I’m going to buy these new versions in trade eventually, so decided to save the $6 in the short-term. However, as soon as Marvel catches up with where I’m at in the original series, I will be duly picking those up so it seemed like a good idea to just start rereading the originals as they’re rereleased to get into the rhythm of the thing. It has been a few years. Does that make sense?

Diving right in: It was only this week in 2014 that I learned that the opening eight pages was actually a reprint from 1956, or whenever Mick Anglo was still cranking out the original Captain Marvel pastiche of this series. For all these years, always assumed that it was just Moore and company dropping a pitch-perfect short with “that old-timey feel” but it turns out it’s actually just an original. Funny. When this was first published, the Anglo years were only twenty-five years in the past but the entire Silver and Bronze Ages lay between that original and Moore/Leach’s new take. Now, here we are thirty-two years after this series first showed up as eight-page shorts in WARRIOR. So, we’re all really old and time will grind us all to powder with its inevitable onward rush. But nothing you didn’t already know. Of course Moore quotes Nietzsche Übermensch goodness on his first page. Classic Alan! Such a mensch all on his own. The word-count per panel is certainly far north of where it’s devolved to be these days, just take a look at that first title page for “. . . A Dream Of Flying,” but even as early as this very first issue, what we have here is Moore firing at very close to the full blast of his considerable capabilities here just barely shy of his thirtieth birthday. The quality of depth in the linework of Garry Leach’s art is frankly stunning throughout the course of these first early chapters. I can’t find a list of credits for this original colorized reprint at all that Eclipse put out, the only creator credits I can see in this entire thing are there on Moore’s second page, a little scroll that has Dez Skinn giving himself top billing as editor, followed by Moore on Story, Leach on Art and a G. George on Letters. Those are the original WARRIOR credits; it doesn’t look like Eclipse ever credits the colorist. Whoever he or she is, lately the job has been called “garish” when trotted out side-by-side with the more restrained digital version that somebody has done, but here on this three-decades-old newsprint pages, the colors look wonderful. Unlike, say, V FOR VENDETTA, which is such a product of the Eighties that you can practically hear Maggie Thatcher shrieking from just off-panel every page, this entire package, while clearly the product of a different era, comes across with every bit of the timelessness and master craftsmanship intact that make it such a storied and resonant piece of comic book history, one that we are so fortunate to finally see restored to print after all of these battles over all of these years. I’m thrilled at the opportunity to finally get to read the entire glorious story through to the end, at long last.