4/01/15

FUTURES END #48 — Huh. This is the last issue? As an installment unto itself, it’s well done and all. I certainly wasn’t quibbling while I was reading it. However. When you make it to the last page, you will not find terribly a lot of resolution for folks who have been plunking down three dollars every single Wednesday for eleven months solid. I mean, I’m all for those “The adventure continues . . .” endings. But there was like no resolution here at all. A time-travel reunion across thirty years doesn’t count when the antagonist is still just sitting there controlling the moon and making the DC skies all Crisis-red like he has been since the beginning. Solid art, but I have to call bullshit on these overall very talented writers for not resolving basically anything.

BATMAN ETERNAL #52 — On the other hand! Tynion returns to script a damn solid finale. As much as this series meandered in the middle and ebbed and flowed in terms of overall quality, everyone involved stuck the hell out of this landing. I will cop to having totally forgotten about the whole deal with Lincoln March that Snyder/Capullo set up at the top of their run (forgive me, I have never gone back to reread those issues since their debut on the rack during the grand and glorious reboot), but it makes all kinds of sense, him showing up here and now, and it’s a nice little final-act twist. Very cool to get contributing writers Tim Seeley and Ray Fawkes to draw a couple of pages each for the finale. Seeley, in particular, draws the hell out of that scene with Selina. These 38 pages pull off the spinning-plates maneuver of not only serving as a satisfying resolution to all that has come before but then delivering nice little epilogues for the entire ensemble that both provide closure and set these characters up for the next great thing. This was fine fine work, all around.

BEST OF WEEK: BATMAN AND ROBIN ANNUAL #3 — Another Tomasi-scripted blast of young Master Damian! After bidding such a sad farewell last week to BATMAN AND ROBIN, the appearance of this annual on the rack felt exactly like Christmas. Seems like Ryp drew the last annual, and he might well have been hard at work on these pages ever since turning that one in. The detail of the man’s linework is massive and impressive. And I haven’t seen Sonia Oback coloring anything lately; I remember when she used to always blow it up with Mike Choi back there on that pre-REmender X-FORCE. For this story, the dynamic duo go to the moon and fight aliens who have copied deceased astronauts and are occupying NASA’s discarded lunar landing modules. That’s pretty much all I feel like I have to say; the creators execute the magnificence of that premise to masterful effect. They ride a moon buggy. Nice touch having Damian quote Darth Vader while picking his father up from lunar orbit. And then that last line just sucker-punches the reader in the gut, ah God (I normally don't do this, but I couldn't resist posting the last page of the issue here; if you're planning on reading it and haven't yet, I certainly recommend not reading the dialogue until you've hit the rest of the issue). Don’t miss this perfect epilogue to Tomasi’s years’ worth of all-time brilliant character work with Damian Wayne.

SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN 19 — I didn’t realize that Tomasi and Mahnke were on this title, but I couldn’t resist picking it up after that GONE WITH THE WIND cover lured me in. This one’s pretty solid, not approaching BATMAN-AND-ROBIN-level thunder but Tomasi does good work with little sprinkles of characterization throughout and Manhke draws the hell out of our titular leads beating the shit out of each another. There’s a really nice turn at the end with Diana staying up all night writing obituaries for the folks who were collateral damage; that detail sits quite well with me.

CONVERGENCE #0 — Ethan Van Sciver’s art on this is magnificent. That one shot of all the Supermen dying on the receding islands, in particular, is quite iconic. But the story hits me pretty flat. Brainiac is basically just playing The Beyonder with the multiverse? Right? That is not knocking my lights out. Can’t decide if I’m even going to give #1 here a shot, might just quit while I’m mostly ahead with the DC weekly goodness.

GOTHAM ACADEMY: ENDGAME #1 — I’m such a fan of regular series artist Kerschl that I almost talked myself out of buying this, but I’m glad I didn’t. Of course, regular writers Cloonan & Fletcher bring the thunder with the terrific conceit of the girls freaking each other out with spooky Joker stories while all of that Endgame rages through the regular Snyder/Capullo narrative. Fine work all around, and there’s Sonia Oback again on Olive’s story. And there’s even a cool little revelation at the end, there. This is such a great new title.

SPIDER-GWEN #003 — The pacing on this issue feels just right. I think I was missing the father/daughter chemistry just a bit there in the first two issues. Latour has crafted a very complementary nemesis for our heroine in Officer Castle, and Rodriguez/Renzi continue to knock it out of the park on sequentials. The shot of Gwen decking The Vulture was magnificent. All this and we left The Mary Janes and evil Matt Murdock on the bench this month. There’s too much rocking material in this book!

AVENGERS #43 — I’m not crazy about artist Mike Mayhew’s work here. It’s solid storytelling but not quite the A-list thunder that we need as we rocket through this long-simmering climax. Gladiator is really popping out of this insanely dense ensemble and scoring some quality character beats. I also dig how Bobby & Sam manage to save the day and then disappoint the entire world all in a couple of pages. Those loveable buffoons! I’m not quite sure what the deal is with phasing the rogue planet in but am unclear if I’m missing something or if that will just be explained next issue. Probably the most impressive part of this one was Reed comparing and contrasting he and Steve’s motivations with Tony’s; that’s as solid an analysis of Mr. Stark as I have read in quite some time. Reed is so smart!

UNCANNY AVENGERS #003 — This time out, I made a conscious effort to attempt to enjoy this series on its own merits, not in the context of being the second volume to a steadily escalating story that I found far superior. And it’s all right. Remender certainly nails Rogue’s voice (some will tell you that having her employ “ah” as a first-person pronoun in internal monologue captions is taking the Claremont dialect a bit too far, but I am not one of those Philistines). I’m still not crazy about all the questions Wanda keeps asking herself. I don’t know. I’m going to hang out for this arc and then make the call whether to bail or not.

BLACK SCIENCE #13 — The title of this series is so appropriate, I’m just getting it’s possibly intended as a correlation to “black magic,” but yeah, that’s what’s going on here. With this issue in particular, you can’t help but feel dirty reading the thing. Extra-dimensional plague! Remender does more competent work making the reader care about characters and then just arbitrarily executing them, Martin-style. For me, though, he’s almost hitting the tipping point. There have so many “holy shit” surprise character deaths already, I wonder if it’s about to train me just not to get too invested in any of these people because they’re all eventually going to be cannon fodder anyway. The Scalera/Dinisio art remains absolutely stunning, and that cover for #14 is some next-level shit.

THE DYING & THE DEAD #2 — The opening credits to that excellent new series MIKE TYSON MYSTERIES make it hard for me to have any reaction to the action-movie trope besides uproarious laughter, but once we dig into the pages, the intricate Bodenheim linework drew me right in. If last issue was the pilot episode, this one definitely scans as the first regular installment now that things are getting up and running. Most of the exposition is out of the way, and it turns out we’ve got an entire team to meet. Hickman spends most of the first half of the issue letting us get to know some guy who appears to be our protagonist’s right-hand man, and then we’re off to the races. I was able to dial into this one a little bit better, though it remains surprising to me how much I prefer Hickman’s Marvel work and THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS compared to his other creator-owned shenanigans.

SOUTHERN BASTARDS #8 — Earl who? Hell if these Jasons didn’t take the apparent series villain and make him more sympathetic than old Red Crow back over yonder in SCALPED. I’m almost rooting for the evil bastard now. He gave up everything to pursue what he loved most in the world and completely own it in every way possible. Aaron’s script is rock-solid with the exception of including “alright,” which is not a word that occurs in the English language, not once but twice, but if you can ever chalk something like that up to the ignorant intent of the person expressing said grammatical offense, it’s a pass, which I think is pretty much the case here. Latour is stretching out and really creating several iconic shots in this issue alone: the splash of Euless dealing with his father, the shot of the Rebs taking their field with the new coach for the first time, the final fate of Big, and that last page. Two arcs in, and these boys are clearly still just getting started. I’m already licking my chops for “Homecoming,” due in June. Which is funny. I didn’t think this book had anything to do with that CONVERGENCE at all, there.

GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #7 — Pity Ryan Browne. The artist continues to depict his inexorably unraveling mind breaking down in full public view, panel by panel, page by page. More captivating than a train crash, more haunting than a pre-orbital space shuttle explosion, this series continues to exist and to horrify. In a bold move, Browne retires his best character, the loveable narrator 3-D Cowboy, replacing him with Exclusive-Marvel-UNCANNY-INHUMANS writer Charles Soule, who is right away just a total dick about good ol’ 3-D and really rubbed me the wrong way. Not even his extensive etymological cheeseburger wisdom could win me back over. Bring back 3-D or we riot in the streets!