Oh my dear ones! The combination of the back half of teaching my first semester of college English and the release of 282 pages by two of my favorite creators got our situation a bit logjammed up here, but we here at WEDNESDAY NIGHT MASS are making every effort to rectify the situation. Commencing now!
BEST OF WEEK BY A DAMN SIGHT BUT IT REALLY ISN’T EVEN FAIR:
BATTLING BOY, VOLUME 1 — Glorious glorious day. Paul Pope is one of the most exciting
creators working in the medium today, blending western and eastern influences
into a unique voice that channels Jack Kirby not in the stylistically dynamic way
that first the brilliant Walt Simonson and lately Tom Scioli appear to have locked
down to a scientific line-by-line/crackle-by-crackle level but through a more
thematic scope, that sense of wonder barreling out past the furthest horizons
of imagination and plumbing the depths of all that starlight narrative and
recovering it for all of us to feast our eyes upon. And I didn’t realize we had
been so long without, time is accelerating and getting away from me, but aside
from that wonderful twelve-page STRANGE ADVENTURES serial running through
WEDNESDAY COMICS in ’09, it has been a full damn seven years since we have been
fortunate enough to feast our eyes upon BATMAN: YEAR 100 and any interior Pope
pages at all (unless he’s been having an affair with some overseas publisher, I
always suspect he’s stepping out behind our backs, cheating on us filthy
Americans with an international audience more attuned to appreciate what he’s
got going on). All of which to say, when I got home at quarter past nine on the
second Tuesday night in October and saw the cardboard package containing this
volume on my doorstep, I uttered an involuntary, “Oh noooo….” the embedded
content of which I was subsequently unable to articulate to my wife, the degree
of positive connotation that this negative contained, the monosyllabic expression
of how unprepared I was for over two hundred pages of the raw uncut goodness,
even after all of this time.
Of course I snatched up THE DEATH OF HAGGARD WEST as soon as
I realized that it was out and had devoured and enjoyed the hell out of it four
or five times before BATTLING BOY ever showed up. But I thought HAGGARD was a
prequel, so was a bit surprised to find that it was in fact that opening set-up
of the book. Which was all well and good, I had had so much fun with it in the
weeks leading up to this that I certainly didn’t mind getting a head-start on
the greatness. And it was wonderful the way it threw me when the title came
true again, only this time when I turned the page, instead of jump-cutting to the
funeral, the scene shoots over to some kind of Rainbow-Bridge-wormhole type
situation that turns out to be a parallel introduction and set-up for the
actual protagonist, the eponymous hero of our story. It is an interesting
set-up, though, the choice Pope makes to introduce Acropolis and its science
hero champion first. This lends a bit more weight to the character of Aurora West, the
fallen hero’s daughter, making her just about a co-lead, for my money. And more
power to her! But before long, the kid’s fighting his first battle and
basically choking, leading to his Thor-analogue father making the odd decision
to just straight remote-bail his son out even though the whole point of this
seems to be a coming-of-manhood-by-combat and everything we’ve seen of the
father leads us to believe that he’d rather see his son fail than lift a finger
to help him out, even from a few universes away. But that’s not what happens,
remote lightning bolt destruction gives way to our hero taking credit for what
he did not do and then falling into all the ensuing mortal fanfare. Am I the
only one who thought the Humbaba was going to turn out to be his friendly
monstah sidekick? The guy’s position on the cover made that twist seem like a
dead giveaway to me, but I guess not. Really, before we know it, the story is
careening to a close and I was starting to sweat it because had no idea that
this was a multi-volume deal, thought it was one shot and done, and as the
pages dwindled, the kid was really running out of space to prove himself. But
in a terrific inversion of the opening scene, it’s Aurora West to the rescue
and she winds up turning the tide. The last shot of our hero is of him
confessing his lie and then before we see the immediate response to that, Pope
cuts away to the bad guys’ lair for the final eight pages of the book, which
badly freaked me out on the first read, thinking that this was the ultimate
ending of the saga and just where the hell was Pope’s head at? It turns out
this was only the pilot episode, which is terrific news because we barely got
any sort of character journey at all here, just the very beginning, but that
was of course by design, I realize now. Plotwise, this was barely the first
act, but it certainly arrives with a bang.
Pope’s designs are across the board spectacular. It might be
simplistic but really the best adjective is that everything just looks cool.
The totem-animal T-shirts (we need to live on a world where a kid can collect
all of THOSE things), the Haggard/Aurora West get-up, the Ghoul Gang’s hooded
mummy thing going on with the chainsaw-in-a-guitar-case, the multi-secret labs
and workshops of Haggard West accessed with the turn of his flight key, his three-shot
blaster, even, everything is supercharged and imbued with this retro-pulp feel
while also giving every indication of bleeding with both a sense of
timelessness and the near future set to erupt any moment now. And every other
aspect of his craft, the guy is just a master. I’m in particular a fan of the
way he cuts to these incredibly long shots where the figures are just like
these tiny tiny silhouettes traveling through whatever vast landscape is currently
in effect. These 202 pages are Paul Pope throwing down the gauntlet, designing
and populating both a world and a multiversal hub that are teeming with
fascinating characters and ideas begging to be explored to such a degree that
the reader can’t resist getting started in his or her own imagination while waiting for the
next installment to erupt from Pope’s head, hands, and heart. He set out to
create the first teen superhero to thrill children and adults of the 21st
century and beyond, and he has done exactly that. And the best news of all is
that he’s only getting started.
MULTIPLE WARHEADS: DOWN FALL — Well, I was clearly not paying attention
ten years ago when Brandon Graham started firing off the first shots of this
series and am damn grateful that a reprint was made available. This is a feast,
all that we’ve come to expect from Graham pretty much in place. The playful
tone, ridiculous puns and wordplay, mishmash science fantasy insanity, this
certainly couldn’t have come from anyone else. It’s interesting to see how
close this is from a standpoint of craft to the mini- from this past year. I
mean, I’m not trying to say dude’s been stagnant for ten years, but it’s pretty
wild to see how much of his unique style is already in place pretty much fully
formed. I think he’d done the first few issues of KING CITY by this time?
What’s cool is that though the aforementioned colorized mini-series that came
out this year was completely inclusive to new readers, I didn’t feel lost at
all or like I needed to hunt these original installments down to understand the
whole story but still had a hell of a time reading them, even though I already
knew stuff like Sexica was going to sew a wolf penis onto Nikolai for his
birthday. The enjoyment was in the execution. We are all very lucky to have
Brandon Graham making exactly the kind of comics that he wants to make.
BATMAN #24 — $6.99?!? That one came as a bit of a surprise.
There was actually a guy at the rack eyeing it, unsure if he should protest
this hike by boycotting it. I reminded him that the names on the cover are the
ones who’ve taken us this far and it looks thick as hell and is probably going
to be worth it and if he didn’t take a chance on it, he was going to be
regretting it really badly right around midnight and of course he agreed. So,
this is all a hell of a thing, I thought that ZERO YEAR was like a single arc
but what we’ve got here that looks like it’s going to be a climax/New 52 Joker
origin is really only the first part of the next arc. How much of a monster
flashback have we signed up for, here? Not that I’m really sweating it when the
quality is this high. It turns out to be 43 damn pages produced by the main
team with eleven pages of back-up with art by none other than Rafael
Albuquerque. Old Marvel would be asking more like $10.99 with that kind of
page-count on business this high-profile. So but, how’s the story itself? After
Alfred gives Bruce a really close haircut and the art team goes ahead and
immaculately reprises the cover of DETECTIVE #27* because I guess why not since
we’re in the same chronological neighborhood, then the main plot kicks in with
the Red Hood Gang’s raid on A.C.E. Chemicals, the outcome of which any fan
worth their salt has a pretty fair idea. I dig Snyder having Bruce ask the news
crew/public the “What do YOU love about Gotham City?” This is a cool
progression/escalation from the question first posited in his narrative
captions in #1. Special respect to Fco Plascencia for the gorgeous orange-pink
tones on that explosion. Really, just throughout the entire following scene,
stunning work above and beyond the usual greatness. And that goes for Capullo,
as well, his composition and camera placement, how effectively he stages his
action scenes, the dynamism he brings to every page, you know what, the guy can
act like as much of a badass as he wants because there’s really no acting
involved, that man can back up as much shit as he wants to talk about anyone
ever with the greatness and consistency of his own output. Then, we get a solid
epilogue based on Alfred really ramming home the whole
we’re-all-thespians-playing-a-part thing that was such a crucial component of
Snyder’s all-too-brief run with Dick behind the cowl that serves as an
effective coda to this first arc before The Riddler shows up to hurl us into
the next crazy thing. Is Capullo going to be back next month after throwing
down double-duty this time out? Anyone else I’d think would have to take a
break, but that guy, man.
BATMAN: LIL’ GOTHAM #7 — All right, it’s been a month and
I’ve probably read about 4,000 pages of comics since then and now can’t find
this issue in the chaos of my little girl’s collection, which really needs to
be sorted soon. I remember Barbara/Oracle was leading the charge in this one
and I really liked it? Sorry.
AMERICA’S GOT POWERS #7 — Not sure how long it’s been, but
it’s less than two years because I know I read the first issue here in my
no-longer-that-new house, so I’d say that Hitch did a pretty respectable job
knocking out the interiors on this, particularly considering that a couple of
the issues were over-sized. Of course, the pages are gorgeous, Hitch is one of
the top talents in the industry and is, for my money, still underrated, as
beloved as he is. All told, beloved Englishman Jonathan “Wossy” Ross provides
us with a satisfying resolution to the kind of Hollywood-friendly plot that
Mark Millar would have generated if he wasn’t such a shock-driven shlockmeister
with a black hole where his soul belongs. This one didn’t light the industry on
fire but was a quality read that I definitely recommend picking up in trade if
you missed it this go-round.
CHEW #37 — Wow, and the L O S T numbers right off the bat,
there, first panel. 108 4EVAH! Guillory’s Easter eggs remain as on-point as ever
with the Shawshank reference and the Layman Luv Edition (*shudder*), but I’m
really a fan of the way he chose to depict the mind-meld memory playback
situation between Tony and Toni. Cool tricks that of course only you can pull
off in a comic book, I love it when people crank it up and try to push the
medium forward as far as they possibly can. We get more epilogue with
Antonelle, though this has got to be the last gasp, I should think. Still such
heartbreaking business. This remains one of the most entertaining and original
books on the rack and I remain glad that I decided to stop tradewaiting and
treat myself to the singles.
ROCKET GIRL #1 — I’ve been looking forward to this one ever
since I heard the short pitch and they know what they’re doing, give you all
you need to know right there in that first panel. Teen rocket-cop from the
future on a mission into the past to save the world before it’s too late! What
more do you need to know? This is a charming and entertaining execution of that
concept, Brandon Montclare’s script is efficient and does its job, the writer
hits his beats and stays out of the way while Amy Reeder on full art soars as
high and fast as her heroine. Just beautiful work and all the better for being
all-ages (Rocket Girl does fly into 1986 Times Square, but we’ll give that a
pass). This is a great pilot episode, a solid set-up that introduces our
principal characters in two eras and sets the stage for the grand adventure to
come. Recommended!
THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS #15 — I was on-board with this
strictly for the insanity component because of course it’s got that in spades. However,
it felt a bit skinny without the rest of the ensemble, not quite as satisfying
of a read as when we’ve got them all packed in there, bouncing and
supercolliding off of one another in all their improbably and glorious ways.
Ryan Browne once again succeeds at the impossible job of filling in for
Pitarra.
THE SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 — When the first volume of this was
coming out, I used to wish that they’d just release non-lettered editions
because as brilliant as the art was, I found the dialogue pretty nearly
unbearable, all the puns and names, the whole deal. So, I don’t know if it’s
just because I’m older and more appreciative or Darrow has gotten much better
or what the deal is but the full-text recap on the first two pages is a
revelation, a brilliant piece of writing that hits serious levels of wit and
satire and kind of stark raving madness at the same time. The whole deal is
bonkers. And that’s just the text piece. Once Darrow sets in on the panels,
masterfully complemented by the incomparable Dave Stewart, it’s all the reader
can do but just barely hold on and struggle with the eternal conundrum of
racing through to feast eyes upon the next impossibly hyper-detailed and finely
rendered page or hit the brakes and just sit there for five minutes really
trying to see everything that Darrow’s packed in there. I have no idea what the
lead-time is on this, if he’s already got five in the can or what, but whenever
#2 comes out, it’s going to be more than worth the wait.
STAR WARS #10 — Carlos D’Anda roars back from his time off
and continues tearing it up, both the photo-realistic depiction of actors near
and dear to our hearts and the intricate linework on all of those glorious
starships. Wood does solid character work with Wedge Antilles and how
traumatized he is in the wake of the Battle of Yavin, another example in this
book of a beat that had never occurred to me separately but that makes absolute
sense once it’s out there. The only twentieth-century slang that Wood lets
creep in this one is the new badass Imperial commander guy dropping the “Yavin,
blah, blah, blah,” which, he might as well have said, “yadda, yadda, yadda.”
ASTRO CITY #5 — This is probably my favorite one of the new
volume just because the team manages to pack so much in. Between the
Chthulu-flavored pulp adventures of The Working Group On Unsettling Anomalies,
Classification, and Containment (I wonder if these folks have been percolating
in Busiek’s brain or on his desk since before FATALE was just a gleam in
Brubaker’s eye) to the apparently massive potential revelation lurking within
the temple of Lord Saampa, the Serpent’s Tongue, to the more Silver
Age-flavored exploits of Dame Progress versus Mister Cakewalk, the creative
team takes us on a whirlwind journey via thumbtacks and string littered with
dozens of allusions and implications that breadcrumb into other stories. I’m
still really loving the conceit of the Broken Man employing the readers as
agents against some massive unseen force and we’ve got to be told things in the
right order or all is lost. Plus, he’s got the best mullet since Longshot, no
problem.
WOLVERINE #9 — Cornell pulls the trigger and just gives us
straight Kitty Pryde narration for this one, a decision that much more
effectively conveys how he’s handling the situation he’s in, through the eyes
the first girl we ever saw him mentor, someone who cares about him very much,
so much better than if we were getting first-person inner-monologue. The art,
as ever, remains at the highest level of craft, creators getting out of the way
of the story, tossing their egos to the side and just letting the characters
act. Really hope these gentlemen feel like sticking around for a long time to
come.
X-MEN #6 — Once again, Wood has serious trouble nailing the
tone of a sizable portion of this ensemble, most egregiously with the sarcastic
Cyclops and Psylocke quipping about a baby in her hand pooping while wielding a
ninety-pound psychic ball-and-chain. That last one, in particular, scans as
reaching for that kind of self-aware dramatic cum comedic tone that Whedon has down but that falls all sorts of
flat here. And she’s one of his chosen cast, not some character shoe-horned
into this issue because of the crossover. No excuse for that. And I can’t stand
the deal of writing cliché into dialogue and then just having someone else
point out that it’s a cliché. Wood should strive to be better than Johns. This
isn’t a terrible book, it’s just nowhere near the standard that Bendis has been
setting elsewhere or even that this series was rocking for its first three
issues. Hoping that we can get it together by the time the Dodsons show up.
INFINITY #4 — Opeña/Weaver/Ponsor keep the quality terribly
high as they embark upon the second half of this universe-spanning
slaughterfest. We get to meet Thanos’s boy, who is of course a really good dude
and totally nothing like his daddy until dude turns him into a younger version
of himself. That shit always happens. That Builder bitch-slapping Thor is
pretty rough to sit through, though of course we should all see the Mjolnir-as-boomerang
payoff coming. Great last beat, too, the follow-up and inversion to Cap’s
previous answer. Man, I hope that was in the core title and not AVENGERS. This
one is still going great guns.
*it would be nice if Editorial let the BK WAS HERE graffiti
be more in the shape of a finger, if you take my meaning
