8/05/15

BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #11 — All right, whoof-duh, for some reason, I thought that this was the last issue and was getting increasingly freaked out over how they were going to wrap this one up. Rudy’s art remains a stunning revelation, every spread and every panel displaying a staggering amount of care and artistic glory that you almost never find in a monthly single. I might have said it before, but it’s so good, it hits JHWIII levels of greatness where you’re just pissed at the publisher for having the temerity to put ads opposite a single page even one time, never mind ten; they really all need to be kicked back to the end. Kot continues to not knock the lights out for me, though, I’m sorry to say. There is absolutely nothing to yank us up into the stars and make us care about these characters. This issue has a nice bit of caption repetition that’s poetic enough with that “Into the void we go” bit and there are some swell rhymes in the Loki scene, but the latter actually comes across as more affected than anything. It’s frustrating to see such tremendous art in service of such boilerplate scripting. The characters in this could be anyone. There isn’t a single thing they do that’s unique to Bucky & Daisy. You could graft Clint Hawkeye & Kate Hawkeye into this same situation and it would read the same. Or Sam Wilson & Maria Hill or anyone else who loosely fits these types. Not one thing that’s happened since this series has begun has been an organic outgrowth of character, who these people are and how what’s happened to them before now has shaped them. It’s just been a cool enough science-fiction plot with stunning visuals. I’m hopeful that some staggering twist has been held in reserve until the finale, but we’ll see.

GUARDIANS OF KNOWHERE #2 — The art is certainly well done and all, but Bendis isn’t doing nearly the amount of character work adequate enough to make me give a shit about dropping back by. Only picked this one up after a pretty much flat first issue because I trust him and like him and wanted to give him one more chance to hook me, and maybe next issue is going to be amazing now that we’ve spent four dollars and twenty pages getting to know Yotat the Destroyer before he rolls up to slaughter Mantis & Gamora on the last page, but I am having a rough time investing in this pretty much at all on its own merit, never even mind the fact that we’re just a couple three months away from a reset button anyway.

DARTH VADER #8 — Gillen continues stacking the deck in this second arc with an entire gang of new supporting characters who are all engaging and even threatening to kick everyone’s favorite Dark Lord of the Sith out of the spotlight. Aphra is emerging as an intriguing protagonist in her own right, and then you’ve got the psycho-droids and evil Wookie, the bounty hunters, the twins, and then this other entire level of upper management all reporting to the still-living Grand General Tagge. And that’s before we meet Vader’s new adjutant, who gets quite a nice moment right off the bat. This issue is more set-up than anything else, but there’s so much going on, it’s pretty compelling all on its own.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE: SECOND CYCLE #9 — Snyder/Albuquerque/McCaig hit the gas as this series rockets toward its inevitable orbital conclusion, maintaining the exciting pulpy horror roots that have brought it this far.

MORNING GLORIES #47 — It isn’t a party until someone breaks a bottle over Gribbs’s head. So, well done, all! I’m digging this election arc and rooting for Ike to somehow be King Headmaster of the Academy when all is said and done. Terrific bit with Hunter and the password. Classic Ike.

JUPITER’S CIRCLE #5 — It is surely because he is such a fun hard-drinking charismatic showboating type, but I have to say that I am digging on the exploits of old George the Skyfox more than anyone  else so far. Millar’s doing really terrific work zooming in on the old team and fleshing them out one by one while poor Quitely spends the rest of his life drawing the main series. At least we got PAX AMERICANA!

THE FOX: FOX HUNT #5 — Wow. That strayed into some pretty dark business, by any standard. At least there was ice cream afterwards! Haspiel’s art continues to convey dynamism and deliver gripping sequential storytelling as timeless as the masters that he learned it from. Definitely onboard with the third volume of this whenever such a thing comes to be.

SAVAGE DRAGON #205 — Larsen plays another cool layout game with the single page-length vertical panel along the left side of the page and then five horizontals running down the other two-thirds of the page. But, man, he doesn’t pull any punches with the pregnancy plot even a little bit. Women are getting pregnant and unpregnant at a pretty alarming rate, here. Larsen does solid work, once again providing the reader with the requisite slugfest while never losing sight of the fact that it’s the various interpersonal dynamics he’s set up within the ensemble that make this book sing.

8house: Arclight #2 — I came home from the new FANTASTIC FOUR movie (that I didn’t hate nearly as much as everybody else, though of course it did end up being a very hot mess) and reached immediately for this to reread because I needed a straight shot of that sense of awe and wonder and strangeness that Kirby could always give you in that original run and that Graham and cohorts have excelled at channeling for years now. That’s about the nicest thing I can say about anything. I love the narrative tone in this and the way that the ending cascades over to another one of Churchland’s paintings like the ones that opened ISLAND. Fine work to be found here, indispensable for PROPHET lovers.

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #13 — I made it to the second page, flipped back to the cover to see who was on art, and then felt like a total asshole. Of COURSE Lotay. The colors should be a dead giveaway by now. But yikes, man, that Twitter shit was just ugly. I’d like to think that that’s an exaggeration but am afraid it’s barely a stretch. And then what a disheartening final page. I’m sure this issue is some kind of commentary or at the very least snapshot of where a huge chunk of our social media culture is at the moment, but it sure is a drag to make it through, I will tell you that. Come on, Immaterial Girl. It is almost your time, Darling.

WE STAND ON GUARD #2 — A solid second issue. Nothing as stupidly offensive as the Canadian Superman thing from last issue. The Skroce/Hollingsworth art is once again terrific. Nothing noteworthy in the characterization to hook the reader, but these guys are nice enough to keep a 22-page book with no ads at $2.99, so I can at least hang out with that for a little while and keep giving BKV a chance to make me care about these folks.

THE FADE OUT #8 — Business is moving along a bit faster now as several interesting developments keep happening off-panel (I actually typed “off-screen” at first, so bravo, Brubaker!) and even between issues. The only thing we know for sure is that Charlie is probably going to light at least another dozen cigarettes before all is said and done and probably get beat up at least three more times. Devin Faraci’s backmatter essay on Joan Crawford’s rumored stag film is an engaging and informative piece of writing with a strong tag at the end. This book’s regular team of Brubaker/Phillips/Breitweiser is possibly the most consistent in the industry at evoking such a thick atmosphere. You don’t as much read one of these books as take a bath in it. And then need a shower afterward, but that’s your problem.

BEST OF WEEK: AIRBOY #3 — Terrific work here escalating all of the drug-induced madness that has already come before. You have got to adore the explicit in-dialogue Mignola reference early on, so perfect. And what a fine day to have a Skywolf to go with Skyfox up above. The centerpiece of this issue, though, is that talk with Robinson & Airboy in the morgue over young Robinson’s shot-up body. We’re going along having so much meta-fun and then Robinson just suckerpunches the reader with the poignancy of a breakdown/confession about how broken he actually is/was in real life. A surprising and touching bit of openness made all the more effective by the immediate 180-degree turn of Hinkle drawing his own dick bigger than our eponymous hero’s forearm. Hilarious business. The amount of destruction that Hinkle throws down on this project can't be overstated. The cartooning is terrific, with everyone's facial expressions and body language very much selling Robinson's dialogue. The action spreads are exciting and dynamic. And the coloring deserves special notice, with Robinson and Hinkle now the odd men out, specters in a more vivid and vibrant alternate WWII. Just wonderful work throughout. The sole fix for this issue that I can see is that it seems like most folks will read that trail of word bubbles on Page Eight backwards from the way that it’s intended since it’s not immediately clear that you should start at the bottom of the page. The fix would have been to actually trail that first “Follow me” over to the bottom of Page Seven to clue us in on the unbroken trail. Otherwise, there’s not enough reason for the trained eye to not jump to the top of the page. Overall, though, this is another very strong outing and forecasts that the best is still yet to come. Can’t wait to see how it all ends up.