6/10/15

BATMAN #41 — Well, I thought those bunny ears they put on top of that armor looked as stupid as anybody else did, and that first image was certainly not putting their best foot forward in terms of advance PR, but I was confident that once we actually got to the interior pages, these guys weren’t going to let us down. It’s Snyder/Capullo/Miki/Plascencia, after all. This is definitely a compelling pilot episode for Gordon Batman/Commissioner BatGordon? I guess I don’t want to be the one to coin a stupid name for him, surely somebody else will take care of that (Update: Bullock does a few titles down with Bat-Robot, apparently). These guys have certainly earned my trust in terms of getting it done inside Gotham City and I’m interested to see where they’re going to take this. It does seem a liiiiiiiiiittle bit soon to already be teasing Bruce Wayne’s return, but I guess that’s the nature of the beast.

GOTHAM ACADEMY #7 — In the vernacular of this milieu, I am Team Kerschl all the way and had serious doubts about anyone else being able to bring the artistic thunder on this book to a similar degree, but Mingue Helen Chen does exactly that. We don’t even need Olive on-panel for a single page as Maps steps up to the plate with a charming misadventure co-starring new enrollee Damian Wayne. She’s such a wonderful fully-realized character, and they play very well off of one another. My favorite panel has got to be Ode to the Grapple-Gun of My Dreams. And was Damian quoting Luke Skywalker on the next page before they went swinging across campus? You’ve got to love the reference to Inishtree and old Contarf Wayne leading in to an untold case of The Batman and a demon bird. Good times! Professor Macpherson & Ham the mystery-solving dog are also interesting company to keep. Damian almost slipping and calling Batman his father is another instant classic. Really wish he was going to be staying around, but I guess him joining the ensemble was too good to be true. It would be hard for him not to dominate the whole book, Mercutio-style, I suppose.

STARFIRE #1 — I had high hopes for this one based on Conner/Palmiotti’s involvement. They’re the ideal team to tackle writing Kori’s solo adventures, but with the help of Emanuela Lupacchino, they absolutely knock it out of the park. Starfire stays true to herself and expresses the openness and alien naïveté that characterized her earliest appearances back in the Wolfman/Perez heyday without being overly sexualized and just shabbily treated the way she has been here lately since the reboot. We get an interesting enough new supporting cast; I was completely engaged as our heroine rocketed from adventure to misadventure. The only stumbling block for me was when the two of them just broke down in the car crying over the dead grandmother. That seemed a little out of nowhere to me, but it did get us into the bar for some beers, so I’m willing to let it slide this time. Definitely onboard to see where this one goes.

DETECTIVE COMICS #41 — I like these guys writing Bullock as the lead character much more than I do them handling Bruce Wayne, apparently, because this script was clicking for me in all the ways that the Anarky plot wasn’t, as gorgeous as the art remained throughout. It’s an interesting new status quo, and making this title the modern-day equivalent of GOTHAM CENTRAL is a great call, as much of a deal as that is to live up to. But Bullock hollering, “Lies!” while roaring off his barstool to join Montoya in the cop vs. biker brawl is a terrific launch out of the gate.

CHRONONAUTS #4 — What a hail-Mary finish! This double-sized finale pulls this strange trick where it kind of pivots like the third act of a motion picture and suddenly drops the majority of the humorous time-travel gags (not that there could have been that many left, those last two issues were bananas) in favor of suddenly reinforcing traditional ideals and values of family and security, all while still sprinkling in amusing subversions such as the final fate of Mannix and, of course, the very last beat of the series, which had me laughing out loud and applauding. Terrific scripting from Millar and absolutely fantastic art from Murphy/Hollingsworth. I look forward to the inevitable cinematic adaptation brought to us by Matthew Vaughan.

NAMELESS #4 — Okay, so this is just basically some deeply scarring shit for folks who always kind of wished that EVENT HORIZON had taken it about thirty-five minutes further. Which is a group that I used to think that I was a part of, but it’s some terrifying frontier out here, mi hermanos! Burnham plumbs new depths of horror and fine linework and my man Morrison is, shall we say, not using the medium to encourage and inspire us to unlock and activate our own true potential as much as just icepick nightmares directly into our brains. And Fairbairn’s colors are immaculate. Everybody here is doing terrific work, as long as you have no problem that they’re basically dumping a fucking horror show into your eyes. Last night, I soaked my contacts in bleach-water and now everything is much better.

BEST OF WEEK: DESCENDER #4 — Good Lord, I love this book. I thought that last issue was as much as they were going to elevate the game, but I didn’t realize, it frankly wasn’t until that shot of the cover for next issue that’s a pin-up of all of them together that I realized that this is just another ragged group of a crew who has no reason being in each other’s company thrust together due to circumstances beyond their control, which is of course a trope of these things, but this slow burn is a bit more nuanced and controlled than the way that the crews of the, say, Millennium Falcon or Serenity came together, which creates a much more pleasant result because there’s the illusion of this organic coming together that’s totally unforced (pun intended) even though obviously that’s not the case. But the way that no-nonsense Captain Telsa riffs off of the somewhat cowardly Dr. Quon and both of them off all three ’bots, it’s just . . . this is some really really good storytelling here. And that’s just Lemire’s scripting, I haven’t even gone into the sparse but beautiful destruction that Nguyen has been throwing down on every single page. He’s a master of cartooning, and the sincerity in Tim’s face when he exclaims, “I want to help!” is so earnest, it’s immediately heartbreaking. Stunning. I know this has got to be a mini-series because these guys are just too in demand, but please, no one tell me when it’s going to end because I never want it to. Wonderful wonderful.

BLACK SCIENCE #15 — This series is really accelerating toward a crazy place, but every page is already more than worth the ride. Scalera came out guns blazing in #1 and continues to find a way to escalate his craft. That splash on Page 16 revealing the next potential distraction is a thunderous piece of interior art that mandates a judicious level of Kirby krackle, to be sure. And I’m crazy for the scrawls of velocity in the sky behind Grant any time that he’s flying. To say nothing of Dinisio’s colors, and Remender is obviously really putting his heart into this one. Just really terrific work all around.

INJECTION #2 — I have more questions at the end of this one than I did after #1, but I enjoyed the hell out of the ride. That Declan Shalvey can really stage a fracas throwdown for you. Ellis is in no rush to make us fully acquainted with our ensemble, but there are some key conversations in this one that help flesh out their relationships to one another. Beautiful colors from Jordie Bellaire again. I’m just grateful that Uncle Warren has seen fit to grace us with monthly shots of his madness once again.

SAGA #29 — As dedicated Wednesday Night Faithful know, I am in the minority of individuals who are not completely falling over themselves to proclaim the supernova greatness of this book and how it’s saving comics and the greatest thing since STAR WARS back before George started calling it EPISODE IV. Sometimes, these singles rub me the wrong way. This one didn’t. Maybe it was because they surprised me by holding off on the “Oh no they di’n’t” moment until that horrific double-splash on Pages 6 and 7 as opposed to just blasting it in our faces first thing. The last panel on Page 5 leading up to that spread is incredible. Since it’s this book, we know that our eyes and imaginations are about to be permanently scarred, but it’s still a pretty horrifying turn of the page, there. And the requisite shocking character death(s) abound once again. But leave dear Ghüs alone. Never Ghüs!

THE FOX: FOX HUNT #3 — Mae gets in on the superheroing act, making it a full-on family affair, though Paul is too busy fighting a disgusting tentacle-woman to get hip to the situation. Haspiel & Waid serve up more of the same Silver Age thrills with dynamic art and a script that krackles. This issue is good fun all around and Douglas Wolk’s essay on the fox legend is a charming piece of back-matter.

SAVAGE DRAGON #204 — Well, I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming, but the screwball teen sex comedy vibe that was dominating this one for the last little bit, while at the time seeming like a completely organic plot development reflecting the age of its characters, was also just a serious set-up for all of the conception difficulties that are about to rein down on poor Malcolm. It shouldn’t be funny, but it almost is, how when any previous liaison tells him that she’s knocked up, his immediate go-to response is, “Abort! Abort!” like he’s watching TOP GUN or something. Of course, the elephant in the room is that we haven’t heard about Maxine’s status yet, but so far we’re two for two for fertilized eggs. Not a good sign, methinks.

SILVER SURFER #012 — “THE END?” Does that mean we’re done with this series? If so, this was a lovely and elegant way to go out with all of the cosmic threat removed, the conflict stripped down to the relationship between our titular protagonist and Dawn Greenwood. Slott never spun his wheels with this one; several of these status quos would have been entertaining as more than single-issue set-ups. I was just getting used to bearded-fisherman Norrin Radd. He seems like a fun guy to knock back a few with at the bonfire, you know? I cut my teeth on Jim Starlin and Ron Lim throwing down the absolute justice on SILVER SURFER around 1990 while bringing Thanos back before INFINITY GAUNTLET hit and that run will always have a special place in my heart, the beats it hit on a month-to-month basis, but these guys and gal might have produced a more iconic run that speaks to the Platonic ideal of who the character really is at his core. I certainly hope there’s more to come.

SPIDER-GWEN #005 — Okay now but what? This issue straight-up ends with a To Be Continued, but then editorial just slams the door on that when you turn the page and says that we’re done here. I am interested in following the adventures of this character somewhere else but would really prefer for Latour/Rodriguez/Renzi to be chronicling them for the next two to eight years, please. Especially when this series is doing nothing but picking up steam! As if there’s not enough going on with developing the regular cast, we get Felicia Hardy dropped into the mix complete with a double-page origin that tells us all we need to know before the rock show commences. You’ve got to love Matt Murderdock’s early-days costume in this universe being identical to the Netflix version. He seems to kind of be shaping up as Gwen’s nemesis, yet another inspired choice in a series full of them. The script is tight. All of the art is on point. Please bring this book back to us intact after all of the Secret Wars are over with. Don’t show us what a world with SPIDER-GWEN could be like before cruelly ripping it away after a handful of issues. Really, a drum solo in just the perfect place might have been all that this book needed to put it over the top and steal BEST OF WEEK from that DESCENDER, no mean feat at all.