5/18/11

TINY TITANS #40—Balthazar’s version of Croc is probably my favorite redesign of any of the four or five dozen DCU characters that populate this book, so getting an All-Croc issue is a very good thing. My kid was pissed, though, she’s got all 28 faces on the first page memorized and loves to bust them out every chance she gets, and when they up and added that fifth row of Batcow and Marvel family members, she did not appreciate it in the slightest. Probably have them down pretty soon, though. Can’t decide if it’s cooler that this book includes a character called Batcow or that they actually feature he/she/it on the front page right underneath Robin.

LATER . . . .

AVENGERS #13—Bendis pulls a hell of a trick, here, one that you’ve really got to step back away from to fully appreciate. He just straight-up zooms out from the oral histories he’s been rocking as backmatter since the relaunch and crashes those interviews into the main narrative. So, yeah, all of a sudden, it’s Bendis talking heads. And I know that’s a gripe with some people, but he does it so so well, I love it. Just crackling characterization. Of note, too, is the way that he fractures the interviews, spacing them out over years to excellent dramatic effect, oh, there’s the Wasp, these are all taking place pre-Secret Invasion, but then, no, they’re suddenly talking about the first issue of FEAR ITSELF. And what fanboy’s heart doesn’t beat faster at the sparks flying across the room between Hawkeye and Spider-Woman? Bachalo’s cartoony style is a great fit for all these interviews, he does a fine job of giving everyone distinctive expressions. So, yeah, even though the last two-page splash we pretty much already saw last month written by Fraction, even though they even drop the 22nd page from this issue and still charge $4, I’d say it’s still worth it. Maybe it’s the eight pages’ worth of 12-panel layouts. But Bendis makes it all sing. I mean, this entire thing is, by definition, set-up, there is no payoff whatsoever, but it’s so well done, I’m just enjoying the ride, and more engaged with the event than I was before, even.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #504—Fraction gives us maybe the best page of Tony and Pepper yet. Larroca continues showing up with the goods, as well, though something about D’Armata’s choices when it comes to coloring faces is putting me off. It’s like Tony’s wearing rouge or something. And it’s been going on for a little while, now. Regardless, the team lays it on thick and it doesn’t look like Paris will ever be the same. Sacre bleu!

GENERATION HOPE #7—I’m still really digging on this, loving the tone of the team dynamic Gillen’s got between these kids. Really reminds me of early Claremont NEW MUTANTS, which I mean in the best possible way. Espin got just a bit too cartoony for my taste on the last few pages, but it wasn’t a dealbreaker. Also a fan of these short arcs. On to the next thing.

X-FACTOR #219—Oh, Lupacchino, never never go. Ride this crazy train out with Peter David just as long as you both can make it. Digging on the return of silly to the recap, but that’s even trumped by the explanation for Jameson’s hair, after all this time.

FABLES #105—Ha, that cover is a hoot. Probably the first time anyone’s written the words “after Bogdanove,” I’m thinking. It certainly set the tone for a great deal more tension during Bigby’s confrontation with his father than it turned out was warranted. It really feels like all of these creators are in it to win up to #250 and beyond.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #13—Mm, I still can’t decide if I want to hang on to these. They aren’t bad, they’re just not crushing me. Mon-El getting the ring is really the only development that I care much about, and that’s not what you want when you’ve got a cast of like three dozen. Will I hang out through #16? Stay tuned!

BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM #1—This fell just the least bit flat for me, but that’s pretty much because I got confused and thought Sean Murphy was working with Snyder on this instead of the AMERICAN VAMPIRE mini. And Snyder didn’t even do dialogue, as it turns out! Still, this Higgins chap turned in fine work and I was all right with Trevor McCarthy’s somewhat mangafied approach. I like the idea of exploring the secret history of Gotham. If everyone could be made to give such a shit about Opal City, well, you know, half of your work is done for you, here. Only speedbump is it looks like they’re bringing Hush in at the end, there? Not the bait for me, my friends, but I guess I’ll ride this one out anyway, since they finally kicked me off of BATMAN & ROBIN by bringing in Winick. You know, not just that, I think I still would have given it a shot, but not Winick writing Jason Todd, nuh-uh, not going to happen. Jason Todd’s still dead, you know. The Joker killed him. It was a really good story, and it happened.

****

BEST OF WEEK: ROCKETEER ADVENTURES #1—Good lord. Quite the devastation of talent. Cassaday & Martin lead off with a sublime eight pages, short on plot but long on wow, that perfectly set the tone for the character’s first time out while not under the watchful eye and steady hand of his creator. Of course, it’s a huge blast of wonderful to have the PLANETARY team reunited, with my man Johnny Cassaday picking up scripting duties like he can direct serial television episodes or something. Pacing was perfect, though there was no uppercut, nothing about these pages shocked me, but it just really did a fine job of nailing that timeless or classic tone that Stevens had down pat, the RAIDERS guy channeling perfect 40s pulp in the 80s.

Oh, man, and I thought Mignola was doing an entire story, not a pin-up. So, that was kind of a drag. But, great page, of course.

Then the Allreds convinced me to pull the trigger on that gigantic MADMAN ATOMICA thing for this Christmas. Am a huge fan of Mike’s askew hand-lettering. Guy is such a master at this point, once Cliff took to the air, seems only this one mind could have given that interpretation. Dude has got to be a fan of Brendan McCarthy.

Oh, but then that last one just sneaks in and gives it to you on the mouth. It was hard, reading it, not to picture what the previous art teams were thinking about while going through those final pages, just punching the air all freaked out. As much as I loved the first two stories, the structure of this thing just smashes them all to pieces, and then virtuoso Mike Kaluta and good old Dave Stewart really you can’t say anything but mop the floor with all the beautiful pages we’ve made it through. Just an insane level of detail in these pages, completely breathing the story to life. Perfection.

This was perfectly sequenced. The list of next issue’s contributor’s freak me out almost more than anything. Unless Joe Casey really hits that VENGEANCE thing out of the park, which I’m not particularly expecting, this one right here is already looking like a lock for best mini-series of the year. Just astonishing stuff.

5/11/11

FF #3—That invitation is a hoot. Hickman is still firing on all cylinders with this one. The only slight misfire is trotting old Uatu out, but that’s only because Bendis and Fraction have done the same thing in the past couple of months. If he shows up every month, you get diminishing returns on us believing that this is an oh noes! very big deal, fellas. Glad to get follow-up to what went on with Val and the alternate Reeds. “Sol’s anvil” is just a hell of an epithet, perfect for Reed. I’m a little bit confused on the timeline, we start out in the present and have the council, Val finishes her story, then we flash to MONTHS LATER, with the various Reeds running around setting up all manner of tomfoolery, then we cut to NOW, with three of the Reeds who were just running around wondering where the fourth Reed is from the last scene. Seems like NOW would be a jump back to the present after we got a glimpse of what’s to come. Regardless, this book is still a hell of a ride.

FLASH #12—Out of time, indeed. I just have no idea what they think they’re doing here. The first six issues was a great reboot, setting up a premise that could have lasted for years by taking Barry back to his forensics roots with a healthy dash of Steve Rogers-style man-out-of-time pathos. Six issues later, we’re cancelling and doing another reboot? Why should we invest in something that’s just going to be tossed aside in a few months? Which brings me to . . .

FLASHPOINT #1—This seems like a really ill-conceived event. Another watered down riff on Age of Apocalypse-style alternate universe hijinx. Just dumping an extra two dozen titles onto the rack for a few months does not seem like the way to go, I imagine most folks are just going to blow off the majority. There wasn’t a single hook in this issue to make me want to go track down what’s going on with would-be tyrants Aquaman or Wonder Woman or even Lois Lane behind enemy lines. So, clearly Zoom changed everything. I guess? We’ve certainly been given enough information in the FLASH monthly to assume that, but it would have been much more entertaining to get an Oshit moment analogous to when Legion fried Xavier instead of Magneto. I can definitely hang with five issues of this core title drawn by the always great Andy Kubert, but I’m afraid the tie-ins are going to just bomb.

THE UNWRITTEN #25—The story continues. Carey & Gross keep it entertaining. The endgame for this should be pretty great, whenever they get around to it.

JOHN BYRNE’S NEXT MEN #6—What is Byrne doing? I’m still enjoying these singles, but I have no idea what kind of a master plan he has for this. Yet another wtf last page, which I’m coming to expect, now.

NEW AVENGERS #12—Not too much to say about this, it’s more of the same. Deodato, Chaykin, Deodato, Chaykin. A bit stylistically incongruous, but they’re getting it done. Huh, just realizing that there was no oral history for the first time since these relaunched. It wouldn’t surprise me if Bendis just finally couldn’t keep up with the word count, he has really been pumping it out here, this past year.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #623—Marvel pulled some serious alchemy here, taking the solid work JMS/Coipel were apparently doing and teasing that out into two series that are both quite compelling. Gillen gives us a Loki that remains true to the character, but who we can actually root for, no mean feat. And Braithwaite/Arreola’s art is lush and breathtaking. It seems like this book should have gotten more of a push this month, in particular. Maybe an initiative like buy it with Fraction’s THOR and save a dollar or something. Very entertaining. And hopefully yet another small step down the path that will end with Icon putting out PHONOGRAM vol. 3. Dare to dream, Wednesday night masses!

****
BEST OF WEEK: BATMAN INCORPORATED #6—By my count, this is the fifty-sixth issue of Morrison’s run that has spanned six years and counting and launched two new series. And just when it doesn’t seem like it could get any better, they find a way to blow the roof off and jet into the stratosphere. This monster team-up issue functions like a mission statement in action for the notion of Bruce running around setting up a global franchise for his anti-crime brand. The first five issues, as enjoyable as they were, now seem like nothing but set-up, we’ve arrived, the pieces have finally been set in motion and the game is afoot. The pacing on this thing is masterful, with several single-page scenes, giving us eleven different scenes splashed across the twenty-page issue. Which makes sense, is really the only way we can begin to grasp the challenge of setting up an infrastructure of this scale, one acolyte at a time. And the new character designs are intriguing. There isn’t as of yet a clear breakout star that you’ve just got to know everything about, but there are several cool spins on the old dark avenger archetype, and we haven’t yet met a new character that I wouldn’t happily check out in their own title, provided the creative team was up to snuff. It would be cool if Morrison would jam out a six-issue anthology of done-in-ones, each starring a different new character. Like Marvel did with YOUNG AVENGERS a couple years back. Cornell or Casey would also be good go-to guys for that, they’re the only two I’ve seen who haven’t fumbled Morrison’s ideas out of the gate.

And Chris Burnham. I really enjoyed his work in #4, and he does an even better job here, has got a very well-developed hyper-detailed sensibility that gives the pages a European look that’s a great fit for the scope of the story.

Simply put, I could not have enjoyed this issue more. There isn’t a wasted beat, panel, or line, everything packed in tight as can be in service of rocketing the narrative forward, and it is a thrill.

5/04/11

FEAR ITSELF #2—The art’s gorgeous. The story’s still falling a bit flat for me. Maybe that’s because, again, any serious development that happens in this issue is already revealed ahead of time. The White House getting blown up was on the Coming Next Month page last month, and the Hulk and Juggernaut getting possessed is on this month’s cover. And, granted, these aren’t really even like insane developments, as far as events like this go, but they were the craziest things that happened in the issue, and they had already been revealed to me, even though I go out of my way to not run into details like that ahead of time. I’m still thinking the back end of this is going to be pretty crazy, but Fraction hasn’t given us enough yet in the first two issues to make us care. Dude has just set such an unreasonable standard for himself with CASANOVA. But we must hold him to it!

THE BOYS #54—Man, no one makes an expositional infodump conversation more riveting than Ennis. What happens in this issue? The founder of The Boys continues his conversation with Hughie, connects some dots and fills in a few more blanks. That’s it. This entire arc looks to be pretty much just this one conversation, but Ennis is such a great writer that he makes it compelling. No mean feat. It’s kind of disingenuous to put Robertson’s name in the titles on the cover when his only contribution to this book is that cover.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #37—Why is the paper grade so much more terrible in this book? I don’t really mind, just wondering. As usual, I had a little bit more fun with the story-within-a-story than the main narrative. Which is so great, you never know what you’re going to get with this title, but it’s always quality.

WEIRD WORLDS #4 & 5—Well, they forgot to pull #4 for me last month, so we get two for the price of two this month! No real surprises this time out, I continue to be impressed with the overall quality of the writing and art on this anthology. Ordway’s just killing those Lobo pages and Maguire’s Tanga is a lot of fun.

ADVENTURE COMICS #526—Mm, I think I might be dropping the Levitz Legion books. They’re not bad, just not terribly compelling either, and there are two of them. Not really caring about any of the characters. The past year has fallen short of the bar set by Levitz/Giffen back in the day and even the altitude where Waid and Kitson were cruising for a couple years in the early part of the 00’s.

SUPERBOY #7—We need to get Gallo back on art. Marco Rudy does an interesting job playing with a few different styles, but the overall effect comes off a bit haphazard, it doesn’t really cohere. Though we can probably find this week’s coolest moment right here, future Tim decking future amnesiac Conner in a shot that’s a straight homage to Miller’s classic THE DARK KNIGHT FALLS. And in other stripmining-the-80s news, Lemire brings back a permutation of the Black Mercy from that old Alan Moore SUPERMAN annual that came out twentysomething years ago. Hey, if you’re going to crib some ideas for a DC superhero book, those two guys are where you want to go. Come back next month, Pier Gallo! I want my book back.

****

No BEST OF WEEK, it was a pretty average pile this time out. But, hey! This marks the one year anniversary of this blog. Every week, without fail, bringing you the reviews that fill up your heart and make light shoot out of your eyes and, before long, all of your pores. Thank you for taking part in Wednesday Night Mass.

4/27/11

What a week! There were 16 books in my folder! That’s too many. Had to make some hard choices and leave the two from Brubaker and OSBORN and AMERICAN VAMPIRE behind for the moment, but there was still more than enough to keep me up very late into the night.

BATMAN INCORPORATED #5—I’m, I’m not even sure what happened in this thing. Is Morrison weaving a quantum narrative? It totally looks like Doctor Dedalus kills that UN guy on Page 3, but then the guy’s okay in the fifth panel and you’re like, All right, the coloring went all red, that was just in the doc’s imagination. Because they’re still talking. Only later in the issue, the guy keels over. Was that just a harbinger? The poison kicked in at the end? Really love that shot of The Hood’s masterspy plane rocketing across pages 4 and 5, that is how you drop the titles. You’ve got to love how starstruck Batwoman is when she meets Bruce. Paquette drops a fight-scene layout that can stand up to the greatness we’ve come to expect of late after offerings from Quitely, Stewart, and Williams. Okay, but who was the old man, if not Netz? What is the method to Morrison’s madness? This one really has me scratching my head.

FF #2—Still really loving this book. What’s not to adore about the Thing vs. Doom before taking a powder to go get drunk with Sue Richards, Spider-Man wowing the Future Foundation with his intellect and then Reed’s finger hovering over the button that will wipe Doctor Doom’s despotic intellect clean? And a hell of a cliffhanger. This is why you don’t wait for the trade, my lovelies! One of the best books on the stands, and the best that this title has been in a long, long time.

THE MIGHTY THOR #1—These renumbering hijinks are getting pretty tedious, but let’s talk about the content. This one really hits the ground running as Fraction is joined by JMS stalwart Olivier Coipel and the always unbelievable Laura Martin. And they knock it out of the park. I mean, this thing is gorgeous. The washes of color as Thor and Sif are diving down to secure the worldheart are breathtaking. Plot-wise, this issue is all set-up, but it is so much fun to look at, you’ve got to take at least another couple of passes through. Sure it’s going to get quite insane before all is said and done. A hell of a thing to have on the rack when the Branagh bomb drops, when are theaters going to start selling related comics in the lobby?

AVENGERS #12.1—Wow, Hitch/Neary are completely on fire, here. Quite the effect, bringing the original ULTIMATES art team over to the 616 proper. I actually smacked my forehead when I made it to the spaceknight twist at the end, can’t believe no one’s ever thought of that. Ah, Bendis. Funny, too, that the last page is still that medium/almost-headshot zoom that Millar wrote for Hitch at least 25% of the time, maybe that’s just the way dude likes to end an issue. Of course, Bendis has like five times as much dialogue, more for your money. This certainly accomplishes its stated mission of telling an engaging story that will hopefully draw in new readers. Or, hey, just making an extra $3 off everyone who buys the thing, anyway.

UNCANNY X-MEN #536—Tonally, this is right where I want this book to be. Gillen’s hitting all the correct beats pretty much out of the gate and the Dodsons are in fine form, as ever. An interesting follow-up to all of those astonishing shenanigans from a few years ago. The $4 cover price is, however, galling.

MORNING GLORIES #9—Mm, this one left me a little cold, but the twin thing in general seems pretty played out, nothing about this approach seemed new or interesting to me. Kind of ready to get the next arc started (or, more like, ready to reach the sure-to-be-out-of-left-field epilogue to the last issue of these single –centrics).

FLASH #11—So, Manipul’s gone? That’s a shame. A casualty of this title being a flagship of the Next Big Event, no doubt. Kolins’s painted thing isn’t quite the look I’m feeling for this one. Real sorry the initial creative team is already history, that first arc was pretty much perfect.

DETECTIVE COMICS #876—And speaking of pretty much perfect, these guys nail every aspect of this. Was expecting great things from a Snyder/Jock run and have not been disappointed. If anything, Jock has cranked it up since the first arc. The centerpiece of the issue is, of course, Gordon’s conversation with Dick, which was very well handled in terms of both Snyder’s beats and Jock’s angle choices. I guess Gordon can never, will never be allowed to just come right out and say it, but, I mean, he KNOWS, right? Yeah, yeah, he does.

BRIGHTEST DAY #24—Well, it’s over. This was easily the best (semi-)weekly since the probably-never-to-be-repeated 52, and the art was even better. We got a really nice moment with Dove and Boston to shut down their arc. And an approach to Swamp Thing that is pretty much the diametric opposite of the nuanced psychological horror work with the character that first put Alan Moore on the map thirty years ago. I enjoyed the ride and only considered dropping the book once or twice this past year, but now that I’ve come to the end (and, granted, had both big moments of these last two issues spoiled for me by nincompoops), kind of wish I’d spent my $74 on something else.

ACTION COMICS #900—This beast. Hard to know where to start with this thing. I guess we’ll go in order. Okay, deep breath.

First of all, what we have here is the finale to the Lex Luthor story that’s been running since #890, and I’ve made no secret of really enjoying it every step of the way. However. In addition to being Part 11 to THE BLACK RING, this is also Part 6 to a Doomsday story that’s been running through a bunch of random titles this month. How is this thing going to read in trade? It’s ridiculous. Completely out of nowhere, we have Steel and Superboy and Supergirl and Cyborg Hank Henshaw Superman and maybe the Superman 1,000,000 of the 853rd Century I want to say? suddenly duking it out with an uberDoomsday. What should be a huge moment, Superman returning to this title for the first time in almost a year, is completely undercut by the feeling that I’ve picked up the wrong book because what the hell is going on here and where’s the star of the show I’ve been following all this time? Luthor does not appear until Page 8 and exits the stage with another eight pages still to go. Meaning in a 51-page climax, our protagonist does not appear for fifteen pages. That’s a third of the story! And then we’re supposed to just accept it and barrel on into the next big thing, the premise of which seems more than a bit laughable at first blush. I don’t know. It was better the second time, but still quite a disappointment. Interested to see what Cornell’s going to do now that the big guy’s back, but, bummer.

And then my man Lindelof shows up and crushes ten pages with Ryan Sook. The end of this thing hit me in the gut. Like, it hit me almost as hard the second time back through, when I knew exactly what was coming. Powerful stuff. As far as Lindelof goes, this is pretty standard L O S T fare, the season has just started and here’s a situation that we don’t fully understand at first and hey who are these guys, what exactly are they talking about? and then he drops the bomb, oh my gods, we’re on the Island and it’s the 70s! That controlled disorientation seems to be the main weapon Lindelof has in his narrative arsenal, but I guess as long as it keeps blowing people up, he’s getting the job done.

The Dini story was kind of weird, I didn’t really see the point.

The Johns/Frank thing was such a tease! I was loving it, turned to that double-page spread and was all pumped for what was going to happen next, all kinds of great banter just around the corner. But, no, that was it. Fill in the blanks yourself.

And then we come to the nine pages that everyone’s talking about. Taken on its own, the story made sense to me. The ending was a bit hokey. I think it was pretty brave of DC to greenlight it. They had to be expecting a backlash. I guess. I mean, I would think that something like that, they would realize that it was a really big deal and kind of be ready with the hype and spin, but it seems like they were caught flat-footed. Can’t believe they threw that switch and came back with, “We have no plans to follow up on this.” Really? Then why do it in the first place? Can’t fathom it.

The Donner storyboards, wish they would have just gotten Sean Chen or someone to draw sequentials, it was a decent story, but came across as filler in this format after the rest.

Quite the bargain for $6, though, I have to say!

BEST OF WEEK is too close to call. It totally would have been ACTION, but that Doomsday malarkey soured me. The first three I read were all pretty wonderful and would have taken it any other week if not for the presence of the other two.

4/20/11

AVENGERS #12—The A-list team of Bendis/Romita/Janson brings this second arc to a very satisfying conclusion. These guys are at the top of their game and delivering exactly what I want from my blockbuster Avengers comic. Great set-up with Stark getting the gauntlet, Bendis dropping the character beat master strokes. And even a believable double-back about Thanos. Bendis got me twice, first with the penultimate page (Oh noes, Tony, not aGAIN!), then with that last page, really didn’t see that coming at all. I hope he knows what the next ILLUMINATI series is about and that Cheung’s drawing it as soon as he gets done with these two years’ worth of YOUNG AVENGERS sequel.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #503—The lead story is all well and good, sets up FEAR ITSELF like you’d expect, but I really really dug on that “How I Met Your Mother” with Chaykin. I bet Fraction was just freaking out, I know AMERICAN FLAGG is a really big and formative deal for him. This one’s very much worth your $4, thanks, all.

GENERATION HOPE #6—These guys seem to be doing an even better job finding their footing as we open the second arc. I’ve very much enjoyed the series thus far, but it’s apparent that Gillen is even more laser-sight locked in than ever, knows exactly where he wants to take these kids and has the right people to help get them there. With Gillen having created all of these characters but Hope from scratch and also just getting cranked up over on UNCANNY, we’ve suddenly got the potential to relive the mid-80s Claremont UNCANNY/NEW MUTANTS heyday all over again. You just need $7 a month to enjoy the ride now, as opposed to a buck twenty.

X-FACTOR #218—Gorgeous! I’ve gone on before about Emanuela Lupachinno’s work here, but this issue takes it to a new level. PAD is still the master of the long game. This has been and remains just a hell of a run on characters that nobody gave a damn about until the right people gave them life.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #12—The art looks pretty good. The story moves pretty well. I might still be experiencing Legion fatigue. Story still developing.

GREEN LANTERN #65—Guy and Hal rock the buddy cop vibe better than most. This was a pretty satisfying issue all on its own, no mean feat, considering I skipped the parts 2 and 3 that have happened since #64. I’m really grooving on the artistic space that Mahnke is occupying, even five different inkers couldn’t muddle up the greatness, though I’m driving myself crazy playing guess-the-inker with those shots of them in the cockpit (and, since I brought it up without meaning to, there was just no need for the homoeroticism. Bad call, there). But yeah, we get dropped off in an interesting place, making parts 5 and 6 pretty difficult to ignore. Of course, NOW I’m thinking about picking up GL CORPS after finally appreciating Gleason’s work and he’s already shipped off to Gotham.

FABLES #104—This arc continues to delight as the F-Men get thrown into hypothetical combat and Buckingham/Leialoha drop the serious Kirby thunder like it’s no big deal. And it looks like things with that big bad wolf and his dad have approached critical mass, next issue is going to be just a hell of a thing.

TINY TITANS #39—What else can you say about an issue whose central plot point is that Supergirl cons Alfred into throwing all of the red capes in the Wayne Manor laundry with all the Bat-family's costumes and everything comes out pink, so everybody's just dealing with that for the rest of the issue, plus they just slap SMALLVILLE across the face with that Pink Blur barb? Do I have anything to add? I do not, except that I hope this series never, ever gets cancelled. Or progresses, even. Maintains a rhythm more in the neighborhood of THE SIMPSONS. I mean, obviously, Balthazar & Franco are building, but I'm trying to say, I hope in 18 years, this book is still coming out monthly and all these kids are still enrolled at Sidekick Elementary and Slade is still the principal and Darkseid is still the lunch lady. There's no way that situation in which comedy is certain to ensue ever, ever gets more perfect. I feel so fortunate that this, of all possibilities, is what I am required to read to my little girl, every day and all the time.

EDITED ONE WEEK AND ABOUT A DOZEN READS LATER TO ADD: I would love to know how many kids read this and then actually, when the coast was clear, dumped a vest, some short shorts, and a bunch of red and green and yellow food coloring in the washing machine to make a Robin costume. I mean, even if it's like 1% of the readers, that's still 40-something kids.

SUPER DINOSAUR #1—This is pretty much a pitch-perfect first issue. Same especially goes for the first page. That is how you do it. I suspect that Mister Bob Kirkman has been around the block a time or two with this sequential narrative game, here. Since Derek Dynamo’s such a genius, I could maybe do with him not misusing “awesome” the way that every other English speaker seems to be doing of late (same goes for “literally” and “epic”), but he’s still a kid, so it’s a defendable decision. Jason Howard’s come a long way since that first issue of ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN and knocks these pages out. Most importantly, I believe that these guys have executed their goal, to create an exciting title full of wow and wonder that anyone of any age can get in on the ground floor with, that tickles all of those Silver Age synapses that Lee, Kirby & friends did such a wonderful job activating fifty years ago. WAIT. If FANTASTIC FOUR #1 was cover-dated June 1961, doesn’t that mean it came out right around now fifty years ago? Shouldn’t, shouldn’t something be done about that?

****

BEST OF WEEK: Well, I fear that I might have walked away from this week’s winner by not picking up the reboot of the DARK HORSE PRESENTS anthology, but I have never read CONCRETE, probably to my detriment, but that simply wasn’t a draw for me, not to mention I could not give less than a shit about 300 2: 301, and at that point, even with Adams and Corben, the $8 cover price was just a little too steep when I know that book’s going to be waiting for me at Half Price Books in just a very few weeks (that place is a treasure horde, today I found PLANETARY #1 and all three REDs in the quarter bin, absurd). Of what I read . . . I don’t know, it might be too close to call. AVENGERS and FABLES and SUPER DINOSAUR were all pretty much the same redline level of wonderful. Or really, TINY TITANS, even. Give it to Kirkman/Howard, just for pretending to be rooks.

4/13/11

For all the iridescent Michelangelo and white knights over Gotham, this right here was not a very light week. *dodge*

S.H.I.E.L.D. #∞—A delight and treasure. Wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about any offering from this series not drawn by Dustin Weaver, but the random Italian-sounding fellas they got to draw these four parts all delivered solid pages. Though we possibly peak early with Nick Pitarra doing the first part, “Colossus.” I mean, that right there might have been cooler than anything that happened in the first volume. Your mind just redlines, at some point. And for me, that would be the shot of Newton strangling John Locke being a straight lift from L O S T 5.07. OVERLOAD. This is my favorite thing from Marvel in forever.

SECRET WARRIORS #26—Of course, when you take all three of Hickman’s Marvel books as a whole, it’s a whole new level of mental devastation. I don’t guess there’s a single creator that I’m digging on more at the moment. And this is a big one, right here. With only three issues left to go, counting this one, Hickman flips it all around upside down once again with not one but two major reveals that will add quite the depth to rereading this entire run all in one go. This series should have gotten a bit more of a push from corporate, a smart, well-constructed character piece with a coherent beginning, middle, and end, along with more twists and turns than a winding mountain road that will surely carry through to some sort of shocking and impossible to forecast conclusion. I can’t wait.

NEW AVENGERS #11—Man, maybe it’s just because I was at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo, but my man Chaykin seems to have done nothing but con sketches for this one. Need a little shadow under the neck? Quick squiggly marker line’ll set you straight. Note to editors: please, please do not put ads opposite splash pages. It almost completely nullifies their effect. I get that we have to have ads, but maybe put them somewhere where they don’t completely wreck the momentum of the narrative that we also helped subsidize? Deodato continues to kill it. Bendis, though, man, what he does with Fury’s speech, folding the name Avengers up into retribution for the Holocaust, just a hell of a trick. Almost seems to come out of nowhere, but of course the precedent’s been set by that first ALL-STAR COMICS cover. Some pretty fierce writing from a very busy man. And then he crushes it with the Hellcat-centric oral history, which, who saw that coming?

UNCANNY X-FORCE #7—Believe the hype on this one. Not since Morrison was behind the wheel has an X-book had this out of control feeling that anything could happen. Isad Ribic gives us some excellent Escher spaces that are very well complemented by Matthew Wilson’s colors. It’s nice to see someone not ignoring all the toys that Morrison lobbed on into the mythos. This has to be the best $4 Marvel book that I’m not buying (Thanks, Tommy!).

UNCANNY X-MEN #535—Ah, I liked this twice as much as the point-1. Why can’t the Dodsons just never go away? I was all primed and pumped for a sweet four-pager of Peter and Kitty recreating Scott and Jean’s famous New Mexico butte scene (oh, yes I did!) minus the consummation, so of course Gillen’s got to pull the rug out on page 2. And a Peter/Kitty fastball special is an inspired bit of fanboy wankery, wonder if he just thought of that or has been wanting to do it for ten years. Highly recommended for fans of Whedon/Cassaday’s original ASTONISHING run. Though, hey, maybe a double-pg ad spread spoiling the end of in-progress AGE OF X while advertising an X-FORCE issue that’s still four months away might be just a bit premature by a couple of weeks, you guys?

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #622—I couldn’t believe how excellent this one was. Gillen really turns it on here, digs deeper than I’ve seen from him in terms of just classical storytelling. Nails the tone of what a proper Asgard tale should be. And Braithwaite/Arreola’s art is exceptional. Dammit, Marvel! You’ve got me on the hook for another $4 book. Too, quite the bit fo weirdness, I finally got around to Radiohead's new album and actually had "Good Morning, Mr. Magpie" caught in my head when I started reading this issue. Was duly horrified to find all of those fellows flying around. Possibly one has nothing to do with the other, but with Gillen involved, I suspect that not to be the case.

JOHN BYRNE’S NEXT MEN vol. 2 #5—This book makes you almost think that it’s the final testament of a brilliant creative mind dissolving before your eyes right there on the paper, like Frank Miller or what I’ve heard about post-YOUNG LIARS Lapham (light a candle for YL and blow it out and swear you don’t smell smoke), but it’s so so measured, like, to a sociopathic extent, even though you get whiplash at some point every issue from the rocket ninety-degree turns that the plot makes, it still seems like there might be some grand vision unifying all of this crazy. That cover for next month is pretty glorious. Still hanging with this one, grateful that it even exists.

BUTCHER BAKER: THE RIGHTEOUS MAKER #2—All right, with the introduction of the surviving rogues gallery, we get a bit more depth from the bench and a better idea of how things might go from here, which, I had no idea after the first issue. Still not in for the long haul, but this thing is still fucking nuts enough to keep me around a while longer.

THE UNWRITTEN #24—I forgot to be excited about this, another in-between arcs done-in-one. Which is probably a good thing, last time’s choose-your-own-adventure set the bar impossibly high, so it was good just to dive in to this creepy story of a group of talking animal characters’ never-ending ascent of a really really tall staircase. I really dug the art, Chuckry killed it on the tones, but I’m thinking this Davison fellow doesn’t usually ink Gross’s work. It’s usually just Gross? I don’t know, maybe apples and oranges, because Gross keeps changing his style up, depending upon what the story calls for, but I thought the art on this one was better than it usually is. If you’re a fan of stories about stories, you really need this one in your life.

ADVENTURE COMICS #525—Mm, this one kind of left me cold. The Jiminez artwork is of course glorious, but I’m not really caring about any of these characters. Which is the only metric that matters. The Levitz double-run might be heading toward probation.

FLASH #10—Parallel Barry Allen! Johns is doing a good job slowly cranking us up for the big event while, for the moment, still somewhat maintaining the street-level vibe he built into the premise. Good issue. Can’t believe they’re going to renumber it already. Hope it’s #400 or whatever, not another new #1.

SUPERBOY #6—We lose Pier Gallo and this is part 5 of a title-spanning event starring Doomsday, so right away we know that one of my favorite monthlies is going to be taking a bit of a dip in quality this month, despite Jeff Lemire’s best efforts. But, you know what? Still better than most things. Nice two-pager opening with Conner and Tim, followed by Ray Palmer trying to get Simon to work for him before, yeah, Doomsday just pummels our beloved clone all to hell. We can live for another month without Gallo, Marco Rudy does fine here, though I do hope Jamie Grant is back on every page next time.

BATMAN & ROBIN #22—Tomasi & Gleason wind up their first arc and I still can’t believe how much I’m digging on this title half a year after Morrison’s left the building. Gorgeous shot of Arkham when they drive in, Alex Sinclair takes it over the top. The cowl ear thing has to be one of the funniest, most wonderful Bat-modifications ever. And I love the answer to that first letter, dude asks something about #3 and Marts or whoever says, check page 23 of #13 for the answer. ????

****

BEST OF WEEK: CASANOVA: GULA #IV—This comic just gets me, man. It’s everything I want and need and didn’t even know I was lacking until it’s right there unfolding before my eyes in all its newly colored sequential glory. This one’s probably a pretty terrible gateway issue for new readers. As are they all. Moon is a force. Fraction is lightning. Cris Peter makes it beautiful, all over again. Newman Xeno is Thomas Pynchon. Maybe. Just that page alone makes this one of my favorite things ever. This book is a wonderful, insane fucking thing, and we are all the richer for the fact that it managed to punch its way through into this particular –brane. And, of course, I have no idea what the backup has to do with anything. Maybe we’ll find out in September. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

4/06/11

FEAR ITSELF #1—This one didn’t level me like I was expecting it to, based on the creative team. Mainly it’s because no matter how much I tried to dodge anything at all about this event, it still bled over to me that Odin put a whuppin down on his boy, and there’s only one other reveal that’s more of a headscratcher at this point. The art was certainly thunder. That THE WORTHY pre-hype campaign totally worked against them. If I hadn’t heard the term, it might have seemed interesting, but when it gets dropped, all I could think was . . . And roll the $4 tie-ins! But wait, just now remembering that maybe they’re doing that one as a free webcomic? Which is kind of a crazy move. Oh, well. Cautiously optimistic about this one. Wasn’t crazy about the first issue of FINAL CRISIS, either. And still think Bendis’s first issue of SECRET INVASION is the most perfectly constructed first issue of a Big Event of all time. Both first impressions could not have more radically reversed themselves, so here’s hoping.

BRIGHTEST DAY #23—Okay, this one got spoiled for me, but the turn of the page still took my breath away just a bit. Reis has been destroying this thing. Can’t believe I’m actually feeling anticipation for a monthly AQUAMAN. It’s a crazy world.

THE BOYS #53—This arc’s leaving me a bit cold. Mainly because this book was just shredding through the 40s. I get that Ennis doesn’t groove on superheroes and delights in crafting absurd and violent fates to befall them, but need a little bit more for my $3.99 every month. This one’s starting to feel padded out.

UNCANNY X-MEN #534.1—This was a pretty solid Fractionless debut for Gillen. Didn’t blow my socks off, but the guy clearly knows what he’s doing and is going to steer us in some interesting directions. Wish we could have gotten through all this Magneto business without bringing up Morrison’s run, because that reset they pulled takes me right out of it.

Complaint Dept: Didn’t care for one word of Namor’s dialogue. And can’t believe we’re still alternating between the Dodsons and Land coming up. Man.

****

BEST OF WEEK: NONPLAYER #1—A stunning professional debut. I guess this Nate Simpson fellow did every single thing on this book? Gorgeous. Breathtaking. What every book should hope to be. Can’t decide if I’m more blown away by the color palette or the pencils. Or even the character design. These people are beautiful. I don't know, I could do a thousand words on just the art. Really really clean. Detailed backgrounds. The faces remind me of Art Adams or lately McKelvie. And yeah, those color tones definitely have a Matt Wilson PHONOGRAM thing going on. The backgrounds recall Moebius with an attention to detail that's only barely ramped down from Geof Darrow. In the healthiest of ways. But the parsing diminishes the effect, the first few times through, you're just awash in these pages. I hope Simpson's been working on this series for like the last ten years, otherwise #2 might not be out until Halloween. I’ll be happy to wait, though. Image has been tearing it up with debuts lately, but this one sets the bar almost impossibly high. With DAYTRIPPER, JOE THE BARBARIAN, and S.H.I.E.L.D. vol. 1 in the can, it's wonderful to have a mini-series of this caliber to long for.

****

RETRO!: Set the Wayback Machine for 7 days, friends! Since it was a light week and I couldn’t find any shelf copies of ORC-STAIN, I picked up a couple of books I’d read about that sounded too darn interesting to pass up.

BUTCHER BAKER: THE RIGHTEOUS MAKER #1—Greg Burgas’s review sold me on giving this one a look. The problem is, the same review reveals most of what’s so insane about this issue. No dig on Burgas, the back end just didn’t maintain the totally fucking nuts vibe of the front end. Not counting the backmatter, my man was snorting some uncut Lester Bangs when that thing got slammed out. This reads as Joe Casey channeling Ennis. Which is well and good. I can get behind the sentiment expressed in the backmatter, but I’m not sure that it’s actualized within these pages. At least, not yet. Interesting to turn around and read that Casey’s doing much ballyhooed villain work for Marvel. Is #2 out next week, maybe? If it’s a light week, I’ll give it a shot.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #657—Dan Slott and a tag-team of artists absolutely crush it here. So much heart in this one. If Parker and the Fantastic Three sitting around the kitchen table feeling sad about the loss of their friend and having various entertaining flashbacks drawn in styles reflecting the various periods in which they take place, all of which focus on the fraternal relationship between Peter and the deceased, sounds at all appealing, then pick this one up, posthaste.