7/30/14

SANDMAN: OVERTURE #3 — Okay, this is the first one where the insane release schedule worked against the book for me. I mean, this was announced two years ago, right? And then JWIII had, what, fifteen months’ lead-time before #1 hit. And we’ve stiiiiiill got to take like four-month breaks between issues? I guess that’s just what it takes. And the pages are certainly worth it, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to rush the greatness. Just wishing the greatness operated at a slightly higher velocity now that the story’s finally started? But the deal with this particular installment is, of course it’s brilliant and terribly well written and every single two-page spread is more of the same rabid genius that we’ve all been routinely expecting of poor JWIII since around the second arc of PROMETHEA. Our Dream and Cat Dream run into three sisters and have a Very Important-Seeming Conversation, and it really has been too long for me because I actually needed Neil to insert the whole “kind” bit in-dialogue the full four times before I remembered who those ladies would go on to be, or already were. And then there’s the apparent innocent to be rescued and, Neil being Neil, Morpheus needs to tell A Story that necessitates an entirely new art style. This is all lovely and wonderful, but I felt like I burned through it too quickly when that last page showed up and the months ahead instantly yawned out before me. A madness of stars, indeed.

BEST OF WEEK: THE WAKE #10 — Well, they certainly landed this one. It’s one thing to capture the reader’s attention with the perfect synthesis of words and art alchemizing into an unforgettable story. That’s certainly a big deal, don’t get me wrong. But it’s something else entirely to be able to bring everything to a resolution, wrap up all the mysteries and lingering sub-plots, and have the reader feel satisfied when he or she reads the words THE END. There have certainly been those who sank their ship even within sight of their narrative destination, but I was never worried about these guys. They’ve never given us cause. From the first issue, this was a relentless thrilling ride that only escalated when it rounded the turn and shot two hundred years into an aquatic future. So much goes down in this final installment, it’s hard to believe that they get it all done in twenty pages. But every creator rises to the challenge and really puts forth his best work. Snyder ties the admittedly disparate elements of plot and genre together and makes it all fit, even working in a reference to Stephen King & Amy Tan’s rock band. Murphy continues his unbroken streak of throwing down a master clinic on composition with every single page: tight character work from body language to facial expressions/acting, breathtaking vistas, and intricate gear that never sacrifices coolness for the sake of realism. And Hollingsworth has stormed in and quietly done some of the best coloring in the business, pulling off the very tricky feat of substantially elevating the material through his craft while managing to call as little attention to it as possible. This is a prime example of what has made this one of the best mini-series that’s come out lately, the fact that you can’t tell where one man’s work ends and another begins. Oh, and Fletcher! I forgot to call out good job on the lettering, but especially great fun with the little fish-silhouette swear words in the future dialogue. Tremendous. Congratulations to all involved on a job very well done. Looking forward to a single-sitting no-ad read when the trade comes out.

BODIES #1 — This is a pretty cool concept. Four different artists draw six pages each that are chapters set in different times and revolving around a single dead body. The styles are all a great fit. Meghan Hetrick tears up the modern day with some fine linework that recalls Burnham. Dean Ormston is positively Victorian depicting the adventures during 1890, Tula Lotay’s washed-out palette has already been featured of late over in that new SUPREME book but is also a great fit for 2050, and then Phil Winslade nails the 1940 noir look. So, this thing looks great. I wouldn’t say that Si Spencer does a particularly good job at engaging the reader with a single one of these sequences. I mean, there needs to be more of a narrative hook than, Oh look, there’s that body again. Ideally, we should in some slight way, care about each one of these characters by the end of the first issue. I know that six pages isn’t a whole lot of space to do that, but it seems like something to shoot for. I’m thinking I’ll probably just tradewait this and be glad to stumble upon it at half price in a couple years, give old Spencer a single sitting to take care of however much heavy lifting he’s inclined to in a single go of it.

BATMAN ETERNAL #17 — All right, still thrilled to have Nguyen/Fridolfs on board, but I just don’t care much for this particular lurch in the narrative. Don’t care about Deacon Blackfire or the Joker’s Daughter or Batwing or Jim Corrigan. So, you see, have a pretty hard time investing in this issue. The first one that’s altogether misfired for me.

FUTURE’S END #13 — Patch Zircher tears it up. Brother-Eye’s dialogue to Mr. Terrific is pretty damn creepy. I did not know that Grifter was from Texas. That is some dirty pool showing Scott & Barda last week in the teaser images and then having that only be a flashback. Next week should certainly be interesting as these two thread converge.

CHEW: WARRIOR CHICKEN POYO — This was great fun but for some reason didn’t melt my heart to the degree that SECRET AGENT POYO did. Though of course you’ve got to love that last page, that’s all anybody’s going to be talking about. POYO WAS THERE!

EAST OF WEST #14 — The art on this thing continues to be smoking. Dragotta/Martin deliver drop-dead mind-blowing business every single time out. It’s just these characters, man. Maybe it’s the lettering, it could always be the lettering, but these aren’t people to me at all, just a gang of amalgamated stereotypes uttering badass overly italicized/emboldened dialogue, and as much as the art and plot make me want to dial in, these people, these words coming out of their mouths, they keep taking me out of it and I just find it so infuriating.

MANHATTAN PROJECTS #22 — All right, it’s official. Uncle, I give up. Rus Wooton’s italicized and emboldened lettering makes this book just about unreadable for me. Every damn word-balloon feels like a speech teacher guiding me toward a more refined understanding of syllabic emphasis. This is a cotton-pickin’ shame because Nick Pitarra’s pages have never looked better. As dynamic and intricate and crackling with Darrow/Quitely imagery as his work was when he exploded on the scene with THE RED WING, it’s very rewarding to see him refine the tools of his craft on more of an exponential than incremental level. There are so many lines in this book, but every single one carries its own narrative weight and deserves to be there.

LOW #1 — Can the day withstand the inherent density two hard science-fiction titles from Remender without super-collapsing into a black hole or white dwarf star or some such? The answer is, Certainly! The premise and characterization are all well and good, but the real star of the show here is Greg Tocchini, whose atmospheric illustration really puts this over the top. Which completely took me by surprise. His arc of UNCANNY X-FORCE was my least favorite solely based on the art, but I picked this up figuring he would crank his situation up on such a high-profile creator-owned deal with Remender. This certainly proved to be the case! I will pick up the second issue and see how Stel fares once she gets a little bit of momentum going on her narrative.

BLACK SCIENCE #7 — I’m still having trouble believing that the monumental events of last issue are going to stick, wasn’t even really entertaining that as a possibility, but Remender is certainly playing it that way here. I still figure every dead character is just one pillar-jump away, but Kadir as honorbound protagonist is certainly an interesting premise to fall into halfway into the first year of the book coming out. Scalera has managed to, if anything, up his game here. Really incredible spreads and images throughout. It’s not surprising that this book is a massive success. The only hitch is that the cliffhanger here (not so much with the hanging, but . . . ) is more than a bit reminiscent of where Remender just left us a minute ago at the end of LOW, but so it goes.

PROPHET #45 — Wow, man. It all comes down to this, the convergence of more John Prophets than you ever dared imagine in the halcyon daze of glorious nineties shoulder-pad rock! Series stalwarts Roy, Milonongiannis, Dalrymple, and Bergin are all on hand to help Graham bring it all crashing down. That opening four-page scene is about as in medias res as something is going to get. Always go for the oral neonaught birth on Page Two when you need to really shake the reader up! It’s satisfying when all of the various dudes come together, then Diehard gets to do something cool before being ripped in half, so I’d say that this issue definitely hits the beats that it needs to, though not such final ones as I’ve been dreading these past few months because this apparently just trapdoors into another series that might be twice as insane as this monster is, if that preview double-page spread is anything to go by. I’ll keep buying as many of these as they keep making. Who knew Liefeld was such a hell of a talent scout?

UNCANNY AVENGERS #022 — The mighty conclusion! You’ve got to love the Kirby homage on the cover. This is . . . a pretty dark way to go out. Of course, most of the folks got resurrected, but it looks like Alex’s face has gone the way of Harvey Dent and Rogue has somehow absorbed Simon. And Katie Summers, man. Rough. That Remender is so heartless with the kids this week! I mean, really No wonder the legions of fandom conspire against him. I have to say, though, this would have been an exponentially powerful ending if we had been given any opportunity whatsoever to invest in her as a character not just a concept. We’re all supposed to be upset because Alex & Jan lost their daughter, and of course that’s instant empathy shorthand for any parents (or most parents), but it would have been so much more crushing if we had been given just a two-page scene to fall in love with her ourselves. This was certainly a hell of an entertaining story, though. Not even counting Daken & The Grim Reaper quoting ANNIE on the way out, I certainly did not see that one coming.

UNCANNY X-MEN #24 — As great as Kris Anka is, Bachalo leaves shoes that are pretty impossible to fill. You’ve got to just get over that when anyone else is drawing this book.  I love that Bendis is still invested in devoting pages to introducing new mutants and trying to make us care about them, even though two issues in, he does not yet have me dialed in to this guy. Great twist there at the end, I love how both sides initially assume the same thing. Still really digging on this.

AVENGERS #33 — And then there was one. This arc has been heading more and more in the direction of science fiction (both dystopian and utopian versions) all along, but Hickman veers into hard sci-fi here with the revelation that the Star Brands are actually anachronauts created by an A.I. worldcore that fell away from the Ultron singularity. Heady business! Yu draws a pretty cool sequence of the Worldcore triggering the bomb that the Ultron Avenger doc hid inside Cap a couple of issues back, but then the issue just ends. This has all been pretty interesting but a bit decompressed for my taste, almost certainly a very compelling read in the trade, but spread a bit thin for $4 singles.

NEW AVENGERS #27 — Will they or won’t they? This title’s entire run has been heading to this moment. Does our team of self-appointed Illuminati have what it takes to destroy an alternate Earth in order to save their own dear and good 616? Valerio Schiti shows up and does good work with a drop-in from Sal Larocca bolstering his efforts. There’s a cool straight homage callback to that time in THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS when the lightning bolt hits Superman and he’s all skeletal. They do that same thing for the thinly veiled analogue Sun God. But it finally comes down to who has the stones to push the button and nuke the DC analogues’ Earth? (I know they have it as like Earth 4-million and something, but it would have been funny if they had just straight up called it Earth-2) Without spoiling the last page, I will say that Hickman writes the ramp-up very well, every man’s decision to either detonate the deal or not is perfectly in character and feels like it’s been very well set up before now. This is really a legendary run, I can’t believe Hickman’s just over here relatively quietly dropping all of this sickness and more people aren’t freaking out about it.

HAWKEYE #019 — I don’t know. I love this book. Love love love it. But this was the first issue that I thought was too cute for its own good. Maybe it’s the schedule. The non-linear releases, the fact that we’ve been sitting on that cliffhanger to #015 for months, very well might have worked against it. Or the sign-language thing. I guess it’s groundbreaking and all. But it felt too much like they were trying to do another #011, only with a concept that’s a little half-baked. Or at least, a shift down from #011, so it just plays as considerably less impressive. It’s certainly a good-looking issue. Aja is a master of the craft of sequential storytelling and Hollingsworth continues to make the perfect choice to complement the situation every single time. I just wanted a little bit more from this issue, was looking forward to it for too long, I’m afraid.

FATALE #24 — All good things come to an end, ladies and gentlemen. And the team comes out swinging here with a six-page knight’s fable that Uncle Dominic of all people is reading to Nick when he’s a kid (and still has that shock of Rogue skunk-stripe hair, strangely). This ending is kind of an odd duck. It does what it’s supposed to do. It looks terrific. Phillips & Breitweiser bring the thunder, as ever. It’s just, when all is said and done, I don’t care that much about these characters. Brubaker didn’t do enough over the course of twenty-four issues to get me invested in their plight. I felt in no way cheated by the ending but just kind of made it to the last page with a shrug. “Oh, that’s nice, then.” I feel kind of weird about it because I’ve enjoyed this series throughout its run and am a bit disturbed by my ho-hum response. I do appreciate the inclusion of a final Jess Nevins essay, though, always a treasure trove of information.