6/03/15

ACTION COMICS #41 — I have been loving this book ever since Pak/Kuder came on board, but these guys really take advantage of the line-wide relaunch/soft reboot/whatever we’re calling it to substantially elevate their game on this title (and without renumbering, even, what a trick). We’re thrown into what turns out to be the beginning of the resolution of an all-new desperate situation involving our hero just barely making it to the fringe of civilization after presumably walking from a Fortress of Solitude that turned against him and possibly had something to do with depowering him? It’s a risky non-linear maneuver, kicking events forward and promising via cheeky editorial footnotes to fill in the gaps later on in subsequent issues, but it pays off, creating an immediately engaging story in which the reader is just as uncomfortable and thrown out of the comfort zone of the usual status quo as our protagonist. Kuder’s dynamic layouts guide the reader’s eye along the page with an energetic hum, but the real work is happening in the excellent character acting that he accomplishes through emotive facial expressions and striking body language. These people really do come alive. Morey/Hi-Fi lend the proceedings a decidedly European tone with the employment of earthy hues throughout, which serve to complement the back-to-basics approach that Pak & Kuder’s plot have brought us around to, echoing the situation that Morrison had going back in #1 of this volume, not only bringing back the jeans-and-a-T-shirt look but even working in a faster-than-a-speeding-bullet sprint and a leaps-tall-buildings-with-a-single-bound hop in successive pages, to the point that when Brother punched the shadow creature, as great as that splash was, my first reaction was, “Hey now, where the hell is that locomotive?” But the best thing, the very best thing about this issue is that two-panel shot halfway through when one of the very cool and grateful neighbors of Kentville asks our boy if he’s still strong, and the guy big responds by dangling a bunch of kids off of his biceps while beaming, just smiling so wide. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That’s not just MY Superman. That’s Superman, full stop. Such terrific work these guys are doing, so glad that they seem to be absolutely roaring into a second wind on this run.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #41 — Now, this is the business that I’ve been waiting for. I have not been loving Johns’s work ever since the reboot but checking in intermittently, and the fellow finally throws it down. This is a very satisfying issue on every level with all of the balanced interplay between the ensemble that this book requires to be successful and plenty of Mister Miracle and Mother Box to boot. My sole scripting quibble was that he’s got Superman saying “For who?” which is grammatically incorrect and basically impossible for a genius reporter who sometimes goes by the name of Clark Kent to utter. Other than that, glory throughout. Jason Fabok finds a way to elevate his previously jaw-dropping game and brings the absolute thunder throughout with several iconic splashes that always arrive at just the right time and never at the expense of narrative clarity. There could have maaaaaaybe been a little bit more Kirby krackle throughout, but I’m probably always going to say that, as much trouble as I give poor Scioli for bringing krackle on even like 14 out of 20 pages with his latest series sometimes over at IDW. I bought this issue on a hopeful note, and it really delivers on every level. I’m all in for The Darkseid War and glad to be.

STAR WARS #006 — A pretty legendary wrap-up to the first arc here. It’s a shame to have to say goodbye to John Cassaday & Laura Martin, but I am certainly grateful to have had them providing interiors for a full six issues.  They certainly blow it up on the way out the door, though. We get Luke Skywalker fighting Boba Fett in Ben Kenobi’s old place with a blue lightsaber versus a jet-pack and a trusty droid to help save the day. There is a terrific series of cliffhangers. I’m sure that there will be people howling about the big reveal with Han, but it seems perfectly in character to me and certainly makes the situation a bit more complex, going forward. Finding Obi-Wan’s journal certainly opens the door to a bevy of interesting tales filling in the Jedi Knight’s lost years on Tatooine. Paging Ewan McGregor! And that last scene, man. Some pretty iconic business.

DARTH VADER #006 — This is really just two scenes. We have an in-depth review of all of those new bad guys that bum-rushed Vader at the end of last issue, which is all well and good but I didn’t care too much about it. The business kicks in, though, in the back half of the issue when Boba Fett shows up to make his report. Now, at first I was calling Bullshit, as they were just giving us the same thing we just got at the end of the main title, word for word, but then Vader’s reaction kicks in and Larocca starts dilating the time with flashbacks to key moments from the prequels featuring dearly departed Padme, which really adds a great deal of narrative weight to a scene that already played well but definitely deserved to be expanded. Very solid craftsmanship on the interweaving between titles here.

PRINCESS LEIA #004 — Waid & the Dodsons keep up the thunder as our princess makes plans to trade herself for an Alderaanian that the Empire is holding hostage and two members of her staff try unsuccessfully to recruit the people of Espirion to the cause, a subplot that I’m sure will build to something worthwhile but that feels totally shoe-horned in here.

SECRET WARS #3 — Now that the bar has been raised so high by #2, we’re walking into this expecting some pretty serious business. As Sheriff Strange and the Thor Corps begin to unravel the mystery of the interlopers from Earth-1610, God Doom & Imperial Consort Susan Richards weigh his reign. Man, even just a relatively simple summary of this thing sounds just too cool. When Strange explains the new status quo to the crew who have been in stasis and reveals who’s been playing God, the stunned reaction shot is one for the ages. Ribic/Svorcina are still drawing the hell out of this, but it’s Hickman’s vast imagination that is propelling this series into arguably already the most enjoyable Big Event I have ever enjoyed from the House of Ideas. Very very strong material.

ALL-NEW X-MEN #041 — We come at last to the final issue of this title, as apparently the Bendis run is concluding in what they’re calling UNCANNY X-MEN #600. It’s definitely a bittersweet issue, very well made, but I’m just kind of sad because the ride is almost over. This is especially a bummer as Bendis brings in a whole new crew of favorites (as well as Random) who have been consigned to mutant limbo the past few years (not Illyana’s place either, I mean, the unpublished kind). I was always a fan of the Madison Jeffries incarnation of Box. There’s a terrific riff on generational humor as Boom-Boom straight up screams at the titular characters to get off her lawn. Asrar/Gracia throw down the kind of thunder and lightning to which we’ve all become accustomed. I am really going to miss this book. 

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS #1 — Wow. All right, let it be said that no one hated the neck-breakin’ climax of MAN OF STEEL more than I did. I won’t belabor that anymore but only mention it here as context to say that while that ending absolutely did not work for me, this one does. A very similar set-up, but Peter making the same decision makes total sense, and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a parent who wouldn’t do the same thing. You’d have to search a lot harder to find an psychotic alien symbiote as an antagonist, but you get my point. This really just serves as the pilot episode for what is a completely reset status quo by issue’s end. This one has A-list talent all the way with Slott/Kubert leading the charge, but more importantly, it follows the initial premise to its inevitable conclusion: if Peter & MJ really had a kid, there would be a brief period of not-yet-getting-it because he’s Peter Parker, but pretty soon, he would realize that he’s got to hang it up for the greatest responsibility of all, being a parent. Very interested to see where this one is going next issue.

BEST OF WEEK*: NONPLAYER #2 — It’s impossible to discuss this issue outside of the context of the fact that it’s been a little more than four years since #1 came out. My little girl was only two years old when we got blown away by #1 and I said to myself, “I hope this Simpson guy has a couple more of these in the can because it looks like these pages took a loooooooong time to produce.” Well, I was certainly right about that. He did not, and now my little girl is done with kindergarten. But let’s just talk about the issue on its own merits, yes? It’s a pretty staggering situation. Both inside covers are in-story art, bringing the total page-count to thirty uninterrupted ad-free pages of a singularly unique and absolutely gorgeous story that is as immersive and all-encompassing as the truly massive multi-player online virtual role-playing game that is such a critical element of this series. If anything, creator Nate Simpson ups the ante on his insane, super-precise detailed visuals that have basically anyone who lays eyes on them running for cover. Every page is basically a staggering feast for the eyes that I suspect even has Geof Darrow shaking his head, muttering, “too much, too muuuuuuuch.” The colors evoke strong Moebius tones, which is a perfect fit for the futuristic science-fiction tone of the series. But hey, we all knew that Simpson could draw like the greatest badass of his age. The really good news here, particularly after such a long wait, is that his script does everything that it should be doing here. He seriously zooms out and rather than provide another very gorgeous set-piece (which was a great opening hook on #1, don’t get me wrong), Simpson gets on with some serious world-building, introducing several new characters who populate the real world in which Dana Stevens lives (and with whom we are so busy meeting, we only get Dana for two panels this time out. Simpson is berserker!). We open with Jeff Homer, the charismatic but clearly sinister CEO of Lands Unlimited, the manufacturer of “Warriors of Jarvath,” the fantasy virtual reality game that apparently over a billion people are playing at one time. So the deal is, this game is such a ridiculous simulation that it actually has an entire artificial planet up and running at any given time, creatures living and dying in the deep oceans that nobody ever sees and so forth. The girl interviewing Homer brings up some allegations about the non-player characters, a title-referencing exchange that is obviously a huge deal going forward. Apparently, the non-player characters in “Warriors of Jarvath” can straight-up pass a Turing test, but Homer assures us that it’s all “smoke and mirrors” and nothing to worry about. Famous last words! Then, we do need a little action, so cut to a hostage crisis at a fish market where we meet Roland Hanley, a police detective who’s seen it all but appears to be a pretty good dude. Simpson doesn’t really sink his teeth into this character to let him break out of his basic good-guy tough-cop archetype, but he’s likeable enough. Probably his defining trait at this point is that he’s unflappable, completely not fazed by all of the crazy tech and giant robot business that’s got all of us readers bulging our eyes at every turn of the page. Then, there’s Alan, the apparently genius programmer who Homer fires from Lands Unlimited because it looks like he’s maybe been breaking some sanctions on coding AI and making them technically human? That seems like a safe bet. Alan eventually goes home to meet a synthetic customized Queen Fendra android. She was the one who Dana killed last issue, remember. And he’s just basically a sad sack who’s trying to code his idealized virtual reality into real life as well as he can, bless his heart. We also learn about the National Artificial Intelligence Bureau (NAIB), who use a riff on the MINORITY REPORT triad called CUBE (Cognitively Unlimited Bulwark Entity) to solve crimes. And then we head back to the South Realms of Jarvath to check in with King Heremoth, who is wounded but learns from a soothsayer that Queen Fendra yet lives in another dimension (they call it Hell, but it’s just the real world), and so he asks for his sword and then the door slams shut on this gorgeous expansive tale. No wonder there was no time for Dana this issue! Hope no one has been waiting too long for any kind of insight into her tamale delivery methodology! Simpson is an unparalleled force. This issue was very much worth the wait on every level; it had a lot of expectations to live up to multiplied by the massive gap in publication, but it exceeded my very high hopes for it. I am hoping that we can maybe get a look at #3 some time before 2017, but whatever works. Certainly don’t start rushing it at this point, my man, hey.

TRANSFORMERS VS. G.I. JOE #7 — Yikes. This is the THE PRISONER-Scarlett’s- goin’-crazy!/goin’-crazy? issue and totally works, even though it’s so intentionally jagged to reflect her experiences that it really took me a second pass through to fully even understand what was happening on several pages. The deal with Scarlett’s family was a bit disturbing. The way Scioli has the panels go askew in a mist of blood when she slits Fred’s throat is a very intelligent piece of panel layout. When she comes face-to-face with herself, the backmatter mentions THE PRISONER, but I was thinking that cave in Dagobah all the way. The following one-page fight is some strong mirroring work, that double-kick really is a thing of beauty. And what symmetry, on that last page, she’s juuuuust about to chop of Zarak’s head and then we see her in headmaster-of-Scorponok mode returning Bumblebee’s head to Optimus, which also calls back to the start of the issue. If you had asked me ahead of time, I would have said that I would prefer for this insane book never to zoom in on any one character at the expense of the whole massive ensemble, but great comics is great comics, and Scioli’s done it once again. Just tremendous work. I guess this series will have to stop one day, but not for many issues, I hope.

JUPITER’S CIRCLE #3 — All right, finally we’re shifting focus, maybe we’re going to do a bunch of two-parters on individual team members? This is really nothing new but all in the execution, as a member of the team decides to trade in his wife/family for a newer sweet young thing. I don’t think it’s going to end up very well for him, no. More solid work. Between STARLIGHT, CHRONONAUTS, this series, and its parent title, I think I just about trust Millar to produce quality again, no matter what. It’s been a tough road back.

MORNING GLORIES #46 — Even ten-year-old Irina is a terrifying battle-beast! That fight in the bathroom was almost funny. Another –centric here brought to us by those Spencer/Eisma rapscallions. I definitely appreciated all of Professor Meylikhov’s discussion of #22 in the backmatter. And here comes Zoe again, this could be a fearsome match-up if Irina would just put down her sniper rifle. Kind of worried about how crazy it’s going to get for #50, this ramp-up kind of snuck up on me.

THE WICKED + DIVINE #12 — Jesus, you guys! You’re not supposed to DO that! Not cool at all! Jesus!

(but thank you for the PHONOGRAM ad at the end, you know it made my week)

ZERO #16 — This one’s a little bit more coherent than last issue as the adventures of William S. Burroughs continue. Terrific likeness work from Robert Sammelin, particularly that one black-and-white page with Patti Smith, that business pulls you all the way right back to the Bowery.

AIRBOY #1 — Oh my goodness, these guys. I’ve never encountered Greg Hinkle before, but he is clearly a force in the world of cartooning. Robinson’s script is wry, funny, and unflinchingly honest. I feel like I’ve read that he’s gotten sober since the events depicted herein? Probably a Good Thing. This is indeed some Hunter S. Thompson shit right here, it probably was indeed the call to go ahead and just explicitly state that. What we have here is a couple of creators engaging in the loveable antics of a very serious bender that apparently results in the Morrisonesque meta-appearance of the public domain Golden Age character who they’ve been trying to channel all along. Getting Robinson to write this, however close to the truth the opening scene really is, was a stroke of brilliance. I very much look forward to the next issue. I did think the blurbs at the end were overstating the situation just the least bit. Maybe the creators got to read all four issues; maybe they just really related in a way that I haven’t had the means to thus far. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoyed the issue, it’s just that calling it the best thing that Robinson’s ever written seems kind of harsh to the denizens of Opal City, you know? Ah well, we live in hope.

* Any other week, perennial champions ACTION COMICS, STAR WARS, SECRET WARS, or TRANSFORMERS VS. G.I. JOE all would have been shoe-ins for top honors, but how can it be anything but NONPLAYER? I mean, wow, dude’s been working on it since before The New 52 was even announced. Think about that for a minute. Nate Simpson, take very good care of yourself, please sir.

5/27/15

BEST OF WEEK: SANDMAN: OVERTURE #5 — A lot of expectation, really a massive amount, builds up in between these issues, just because the wait has been so long in the first place and is certainly no easier to take between installments. It is then incumbent upon the creators to deliver a very serious amount of bang for the buck each and every time in order to meet the very high standards that the most loyal readers find themselves almost involuntarily firing up to astronomical heights as the issues tick by. So here we are at the penultimate issue of this prequel series, and Gaiman/Williams/Stewart/Klein once again knock it out of the park, doing their utmost to push the medium as far forward as possible while still, above all, telling a story that engages us, a story that matters. How do you make trapping your protagonist in a black hole appealing in a visual medium? Look no further than the genius of J.H. Williams III. We already met Dream’s father, so I can’t believe that I was surprised to find him calling upon his mother, as well. Their dialogue rings true and timeless. But it is the scenes with the Book of Destiny in which Williams’s prowess elevates the entire situation, actually splitting a page from Dream’s eldest brother’s book across our own page turn so that we read the panels vertically with one interpretation that makes perfect sense the first time only to turn the page and learn that we have let our eye travel vertically down the bisected left half of the page when we should have waited to have access to the right side first, which we can only know after our own page turn. It kind of makes my head hurt. And that’s before the three-dimensional ship that Destiny claims is not in his book even as it bulges up out of the page. The page on the comic book page. My head. The script is symphonic. The art is virtuoso. I do not trust that Dream of Cats. This series will be over far too soon for my liking, no matter how long it takes the final issue to ever be released.

CONVERGENCE: SHAZAM #2 — This one right here is just the bee’s knees. Head and shoulders and even torso above every other CONVERGENCE-related thing I’ve read or even heard of, this creative team’s work is a revelation. Parker provides a pitch-perfect script that is a great tonal fit for the Marvel Family, casting recent questions like, “What if Billy Batson was an asshole?” off to the abyss that they deserve. I love him reveling in his newly-returned power of flight or especially the involuntary “Neat,” when he sees Batman’s wings. I’ve never heard of this Evan “Doc” Shaner prior to this series, but the man absolutely puts it down. That double-page lightning-crackle spread with Marvel at the top and Billy at the bottom is first-rate business. As is every other page on this thing, though, it should be said. And Jordie Bellaire continues to take the industry by storm with more perfectly chosen hues throughout that always enhance the overall story without calling attention to themselves individually. And all of that is before the Gotham by Gaslight guy shows up. The original Elseworlds business! The shot of all of Batman’s villains tricked out for the Victorian Age is gorgeous and horrifying. Highest possible convergent recommendation.

CONVERGENCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #2 — Man, Cowan/Sienkiewicz/Sotomayor show up with the serious art. Really good-looking scratchy pages. And Wein fills this one with plenty of heart. I really dig the relationship between Dick & Helena and am glad to get a cop-out to last issue’s cliffhanger. Quality work, here.

CONVERGENCE: FLASH #2 — I missed this one last week. A pretty solid offering, if veering a bit too meta occasionally with Barry and this genius Superman calling bullshit on the premise that they’re supposed to be selling in this very title and even none-too-obliquely referring to Didio himself. Everything plays out the way it ought to, though, with Barry’s looming pivotal role in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #8 rendering him immune from being defeated. And some Kirby krackle to seal the deal on the way out, good fun.

ALL-NEW HAWKEYE #3 — I find myself increasingly torn on this book. Taken on its own, it’s terrific. Jeff Lemire scripts a fast-moving and engaging adventure with the two Hawkeyes trading quips and generally demonstrating charming chemistry throughout, but then Lemire being Lemire, he has to throw in the juxtaposition of the wide-eyed wonder of Clint as a little brother to Barney as they are on the cusp of apparently falling under the tutelage of the Swordsman. So, all of that works on the level of a mentor/mentee relationship down through the years, and we get nice little reveals like the knife at the end of this issue. And Ramon Perez draws the heeeeeeeeell out of this. He’s got his own painted heavily watercolored style happening for the scenes with the Barton brothers, and then colorist Ian Herring and he do an amazing riff on the sparse flat-colored thing that Aja and Hollingsworth perfected in the first volume. But therein lies the rub. If you just handed a new fan this volume without any context, you would get a one-hundred percent verdict of This Is Damn Awesome, Best Hawkeye Ever! But there’s this weird vibe where they’re doing such an uncanny cover version of the previous volume, only instead of it being set in Clint’s building in Bed/Stuy and pointedly about what happens when Clint isn’t being an Avenger, they went and just paraphased Claremont’s old Wolverine slogan with, “what they do when they do what they do best,” which I’m sure is meant to be charming and cute, but it just scans as kind of eerie. Maybe it wouldn’t be the case if the final issue of the first volume had come out first. But, it just feels, I don’t know, a bit disrespectful? Derivative? Eerie? Methadone as opposed to the mainline Fraction/Aja/Hollingsworth straight stuff? I feel like I’m almost betraying the first volume I loved so much by giving this the thumbs-up. Totally strange deal. Um, this is a really well-crafted comic book?

OLD MAN LOGAN #1 — I loved those Eva Bell annuals that Sorrentino drew and was expecting to love the hell out of this, and that’s just what happened. Bendis takes Millar’s rock-solid concept and runs with it, giving us all sorts of fun for such an extended portion of the issue that I was actually surprised when he reminds us that this is all still on Battleworld and there’s still Doom and a Wall and all that, so then of course, we get what we want right away on the last page. I’m not spoiling one detail of this, but if the concept and/or creative team is in any way intriguing to you, I highly recommend jumping all over this. Terrific fun and all kinds of SNIKT! to be had throughout, rest in peace, you old Canucklehead.

CHEW #49 — Layman does terrific work making this issue engaging all on its own even while very clearly setting up all of the pieces for the last act of this entertaining and wonderfully unique series. The tenderness in Mason & Olive’s moment totally blindsided me. Very deft work with the characterization of that relationship to bring us to this point. And Guillory’s pages look as tremendous as ever. Very much looking forward to #50, which I suppose is going to be some kind of pretty big deal, given everything that’s sliding into place here.

PROVIDENCE #1 — Well, we began the evening with a rare sequential appearance by our Neil Himself, so it is terribly proper that we conclude with his mentor and fellow quasi-prodigal writer Alan Moore dropping back in to the glorious world of singles, which I had heard was off the table for anything not pertaining to LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, but of course, he can’t stay away. Maybe just to show Nic Pizzolatto how he thinks it should be done? Because yes, Wednesday Night Faithful, though the word “Carcosa” is never uttered in this issue, Robert Chambers and his Yellow King are all up in here, which is never what you really want to stumble across in the very late night when you should have already gone to bed and the last light bulb is slowly but inexorably flickering toward burnout. I’m not terribly familiar with prime Lovecraft text, only read “In the Mountains of Madness,” and other than that, have only directly experienced him through his massive influence on subsequent generations, but this appears to be a sort of prequel story set in the Lovecraft world of 1919, presumably just before all of the really horrible shit with the Ancient Ones kicks off. In stark contrast to this set-up, Jacen Burrows channels his hardest Dave Gibbons and provides plenty of zooming and panning camera shots that take us through an immaculately rendered Manhattan of nearly one hundred years ago. Things are really only getting started, but the journal in the backmatter helps the reader dial in to the protagonist to even greater effect than the sequential pages. The very fact that nothing overtly sinister or evil transpires this issue imbues the proceedings with a creeping, slow-burning sense of dread that I believe would warm even old Howard Phillips’s cold, black heart.

5/20/15

STAR WARS #5 — This is another really good single, and they manage to make that happen without the presence of Vader or -3P0, even! Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Boba Fett is rampaging around Tatooine trying to steal this book. I, in particular, dug that three-panel montage of him making the rounds on Page Two. The last shot in silhouette is classic STAR WARS. Aaron is managing to gradually escalate Han & Leia’s bickering without making it grating, which is kind of tough because we all know that at the end of this whole deal, they can’t be any cooler with each other than the whole “scruffy-looking nerfherder” deal. Cassaday’s actor likenesses continue to be masterful with Harrison Ford maybe taking top honors. They’re all really impressive, though, it must be said. Even the asshole bartender from the cantina.  And Laura Martin’s colors, I can’t praise them highly enough. Her Tatooine sky alone is absolutely gorgeous. Great narrative hooks all around, I’m definitely interested to see how this is going to go at the top of next issue, as we all know Luke Skywalker doesn’t really need sight to be effective in combat.

UNCANNY X-MEN #33 — Dazzler gets her resolution here. It’s another great-looking issue with Kris Anka once more killing it. But there’s a really gross thing at the end when the new kids decide they don’t have to be X-Men anymore, and just when I’m questioning whether or not this is because of the whole Marvel Studios/Fox shitslinger, one of the kids actually brings up the Fantastic Four and is told that’s no good, too. Just to really slam the point home. I did not find that cute in the slightest or cool in like a meta- kind of way but really just a disgusting invasion of all of the Hollywood nonsense into the relatively pure artform that gave all of these concepts birth in the first place. I wouldn’t care so much in another situation perhaps (if Deadpool was throwing all of this shade, for instance), but I have really really loved Bendis’s entire run on these books, and the penultimate issue ending on this note really just makes me sad.

BEST OF WEEK: A-FORCE #1 — After all of the nonsense with that New Yorker essay a couple of weeks back, this book shows up and knocks it damn out of the park. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jorge Molina’s work before, but he’s knocking on the door and ready to hang out with Coipel and the rest of the big dogs on a massive ensemble big-event type situation. Marguerite Bennett & G. Willow Wilson craft an all-star tale of basically the Marvel Universe’s version of Themyscira (only it’s totally okay that Luke Cage and other dudes live there; they just don’t do any fighting/border patrol). Given apparent carte blanche to just pick up anyone with XX-chromosomes they can think of, Creative pulls together a very interesting and diverse line-up with She-Hulk running the show, Medusa barking in her ear that she could do a better job, Nico from RUNAWAYS and Miss America from YOUNG AVENGERS representing the new generation, Carol Danvers apparently captain of the guard, and then every damn X-woman and Alpha Flight lady you can name. Hilariously, Jean Grey is just totally hanging out in her pre-Dark-Phoenix Phoenix duds, and that’s no thing. No one cares (though it seems like they might be underusing her power set just a liiiiiittle bit). Oh, and of course Spider-Gwen is in the mix. Just the cast makes it kind of an event unto itself, but what makes this book really special is what a tight first issue it is, the way that it starts off with a day like any other, though of course, it’s the day when our story really begins. It’s a shame that, by design, I don’t think that this book is going to run longer than through the summer because of the event it’s tied to because it is immediate greatness.

DAREDEVIL #15.1 — I didn’t know they were still doing this .1 thing, which I always found a bit pointless, but the track record on this title is strong enough that I’m willing to stay with them, especially with the regular team’s name on the cover. It turns out that Waid only shows up for the first page to set the retrospectives up, but Guggenheim/Krause deliver strong work in the main feature. Krause has evolved quite a bit since starting that IRREDEEMABLE run with Waid. This is a smart story taking place at the beginning of Matt’s dual career and dealing with the tension between busting bad guys as a vigilante by night and then having to defend them as a lawyer by day. Then, regulars Samnee/Wilson turn in a charming little tale of Matt getting all jacked up on Diablo’s extra-sensory dust. I wouldn’t have minded one more page of Matt, Kirsten, and Foggy to bookend the deal, but all told this was pretty solid, even though a better deal at $3.99 than the $4.99 we’ve got. Greedy Marvel!

EMPIRE: UPRISING #2 — Waid/Kitson deliver another installment of this second volume that continues the interesting tension of keeping our proto/antagonist Golgoth off-panel for almost the entire issue (and dialogue-free for the whole ride), electing rather to explore his character through the menace, dread, and fear that he evokes in the higher echelons of his command, who are all compelling enough characters. This one is a slow burn, but very engaging.

THE FADE OUT #6 — This title is getting into that territory that FABLES did after they cracked triple digits where every issue is very very solid from a craft standpoint and moves the narrative along just fine, but there’s not much I find myself able to say about it month after month other than, “Good job, thumbs up, everybody!” Brubaker/Phillips and now Breitweiser have really carved out their own little corner of the medium where nothing else feels like their work, tonally or visually. It’s funny, I forgot until now that Brubaker and Fraction are, I think, Portland buddies, so it’s interesting that this is kind of a Hollywood riff on SATELLITE SAM. And I never met a segueway that I didn’t let segue, so . . .

SATELLITE SAM #14 — Not as much the home stretch as kind of the climax, here. It seems like next issue will be more of an epilogue, as there’s really not that much left to resolve. I totally don’t get how Gene got out of that noose, though. He was hanging and then when Eve was shooting those guys, something just started going KRAK! and then he fell down? Seems like that action should have been a little bit more on-panel. The art on this has been amazing, but these people are all so shitty, I’m not really going to be at all sorry to see this one wrapped up and put to bed.

WYTCHES #6 — Well, this one certainly took an ugly turn. I haven’t been that into the dad as our protagonist from the get-go. I get that Snyder’s really trying to present a fleshed-out character who’s very flawed, but the execution has just left me feeling stuck with a lead who’s kind of weak and who I’m not really rooting for at all. I’ve been more on board with this title in appreciation of the stunning Jock/Hollingsworth art, but, without spoiling the way this story pivots at the end, I am much more interested to see what the second arc of this title looks like. I pledge to continue picking it up.

TREES #9 — After killing off most of his ensemble, Ellis zooms in on Dr. Joanne Creasy, the apparent sole survivor of all of that horror that erupted off the coast of Svalbard at the end of the first arc. She’s your typical Ellis protagonist: smarter than everyone in the room but won’t take shit off of any of them. She’s compelling enough to bring us around to the next series of beats, anyway. We meet one new character, Ridley Calderwood. I wonder if there will be more new faces to become acquainted with in the issues to come. Last arc was such a well-balanced cast. There’s a kind of odd tease at the end of this issue. We burn an entire five pages on a flashback to when the trees first dropped down eleven years ago. Gorgeous Jason Howard art notwithstanding, it’s strange to use up that much real estate at this point on something that doesn’t at this time appear to move things forward. This is, of course, addressed in-dialogue in the final panel, so I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. Jason Howard’s art is breathtaking once again, I don’t think I emphasized enough. 

5/13/15

BEST OF WEEK: SECRET WARS #2 — Now, forgive the pun, but as good as the first issue was, this was some seriously thunderous next-level business. It seems to me that it would have made a much better first issue of this whole deal, with the previous issue in hindsight serving as a much more effective finale to all that had come before packaged in a single entitled AVENGERS #45. Last issue was the end of all that came before. But this was a new beginning. And what a beginning it was! Even though the Ross cover should have acclimated us to the insanity of what’s essentially a Thor Corps, the opening scene with the young worthy from Higher Avalon serving as our entry-point character into Doomgard, a world (or nation, as it turns out) that houses the thunder knights of Doom, who go forth to wreak justice in his name. Just when we’ve barely got our brains wrapped around that, it’s off to meet a Braddock dynasty headed up by a sane James, and then there’s Mr. Sinister and Hyperion allegedly conspiring against the crown, oh but then they go to Doomstadt and the executive folks that God Doom has crouched around him are almost too much to handle in that first opening shot. And a version of the Future Foundation are still alive and well, as Dragon Man and Alex Powers-with-an-S unearth a crashed ship while giving voice to scientific speculation that borders on treason, and Doom’s ears are everywhere . . .

This is a fantastic conceit for an event. It’s kind of funny to see how CONVERGENCE basically ripped off the old SECRET WARS, but then Hickman comes roaring up doing them one or five better. Of course, I was expecting an insane map at the end and was not disappointed. He’s put that same level of craft and world-building that he did on EAST OF WEST into this monster, and there is a whole lot of ground to cover on this new Battleworld, many potentially very interesting stories to be told. Really, at first blush, given most of the creative teams listed on the solicits, it seems like just a few months isn’t enough. I could do an entire year of this. Ribic/Svorcina continue to excel, giving these pages the gravitas and weight that the massive plot demands. Very impressed with this, and they’re still just really barely getting started.

BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #008 — Good lord, Marco Rudy! These are probably the most beautiful pages yet, and that is really saying something. You just want to take a bath in all of that celestial brilliance. The innovative layouts, the mixed media, this book really pulls you in and never lets go. Those two sideways double-page splashes, in particular. This issue is a trip in every sense of the word, but it’s over too quickly and at such a tantalizing place to break off, too. Very glad to see the next issue solicited for a mere five weeks from now. Don’t chafe your wrists on the handcuffs keeping you at your board, Marco! This is all worth it! We love you!

DARTH VADER #005 — The creators continue to plunder the depths here and make Vader a workable protagonist, which is no mean feat. The plot thickens as we add an entire new faction to the cast, a welcome development. Larocca/Delgado once again absolutely slay it on the interiors, and Gillen is able to keep a surprise up his sleeve until just the right moment, even though it’s spoiled for you right there on the cover (I thought this was more one of those hypothetical covers that doesn’t necessarily have to come true). And of course, all of this is just set-up to make us really impatient to pick up the next issue. Fine work, all.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #004 — All right, knowing the copyright politics behind it, I (along with most other folks, I’m sure) do indeed find the retcon on Wanda & Pietro’s parentage absolutely stupid as hell. No, they were never mutants! That said, Remender sells it in-story as well as possible, and I was surprised to find my eyebrows involuntarily raising when presented with the alternative. And hell if Sabretooth’s internal monologue re: Logan wasn’t pitch-perfect Claremonty enough to make me interested in where this guy is heading. I haven’t been feeling this second volume too strongly, but this is more than a step in a positive direction. And the fold-out ad insert for all of the SECRET WARS mini-series and their creative teams, man, I wasn’t aware of those until reading this issue. That is quite a presentation, all stacked up one after another like that.

BLACK SCIENCE #14 — These guys appear to have found a way to up their game on this title again. Of COURSE we believe that Remender will kill the teenage daughter, he’s offed everybody else here and over in LOW without remorse, so the stakes are very palpable throughout this one. And but then there’s a great reversal with our hero’s overall attitude that was definitely needed, the disconnect between the principles that got them to where they are and the effect that all of this jumping has been having. Man, is this like Cosmic Time-Jump Wednesday or what? Just about every one of these titles is science fiction as hell and involves some form of time-travel or dimension-hopping. I mean, poor old DARTH VADER is the most boring one, is how we’re doing tonight. Oh well, cue the next round of yahoos.

CHRONONAUTS #3 — The hits just keep on coming. Millar can’t seem to resist having too much fun on nearly every page with laugh-out-loud concepts flying all over the place as all of the hijinx start bleeding innocent civilians together across multiple times. Players in Super Bowl 1969 getting gunned down by future timecops with their bodies flung into London 1895. A Lee Harvey Oswald gag with a punchline beat so perfect, it simply must be experienced to be believed. And the pace is so fast and furious, you can’t help but be dragged along in all of the insanity’s wake. Terrific fun, and Murphy/Hollingsworth continue to display an absolutely intimidating command of craft. Strong work all around.

ODY-C #5 — We zoom in on beautiful, bearded Hera this time out, and Christian Ward continues to deliver absolutely loony-bird eye-popping pages. Interesting tension building throughout, and then what a terrific release on that last page there. Fraction has crafted a really cool situation for himself here, very much out of what I perceive to be his comfort zone, and it’s causing him to dig deep and deliver some really compelling work.

EAST OF WEST #19 — Oh man, Babylon issues are just the best issues. Seriously, nuke everybody else in #25 and make the whole series suddenly now be nothing but him and that balloon wandering across the post-post-apocalyptic landscape of the seven kingdoms or whatever we’re calling them, and it would be one of the best books ever. Something about the tabula rasa innocence with which he views the world while simultaneously being such a hyper-genius about it all, delivered through that youthful naïveté, man, it just really works.

SAGA #28 — Staples really has this straight-digital thing worked into a very distinctive style that I feel like I could spot through a crowd of wannabes. The script was all right and didn’t put me off as much as it usually does, though once again, just opening with that aside about abortion feels like being needlessly transgressive for the sake of just being transgressive, which is happening way too much in this series, I feel like. I miss the guy who walked me down the road with Yorick Brown and 355 and that wonderful damn Capuchin named after the little sign on your keyboard up above the 7.

ASTRO CITY #23 — A talking gorilla drummer. This set-up is so immediately wonderful, it seems nearly impossible that it took twenty years for us to get to this point. I guess Busiek was out of pocket for a little while, but still. Once again, the creators join up in lockstep and do tremendous work getting the reader to not only care about Sticks in general but actually invested in seeing him fulfill his dreams. Of being a rock and roll drummer even though he’s a talking gorilla. There’s nothing in the world like this book, and we are all so lucky.

INJECTION #1 — Oh my goodness, Uncle Warren can just rat-a-tat-tat that dialogue can’t he? He’s talked before about the effect of percussion in general and (I want to say?) his father’s drumming in particular on his writing, and that’s almost never been more evident than when you get to the bottom of Page 3 here. Past that, it’s fairly standard creator-owned Ellis, which is not intended in a pejorative manner. If someone handed Uncle Warren the boilerplate, he would grab your free hand, sear all of the epidermis off of your palm with the boilerplate, and then type out some insane kind of nanite science that grafted new stem cells onto the damaged area while muttering curses about your grandmother’s dental hygiene (the cells doing the muttering, to be clear). There is nothing normal about this man or the way he crafts plot and character. We have a couple of lead protagonists, an interesting high concept that we can barely even see the tip of, and plenty of Englishness (not Britishness) to go around. And Shalvey/Bellaire are as wonderful as ever. The pacing here is the opposite of the MOON KNIGHT deal; this is very much open-ended and not a done-in-one, and I wonder if the folks who complained about devouring the other series inside of four minutes are finding this more to their liking. This is nothing more than an interesting beginning that actually barely gets its hooks into you, but I have so much regard for the creators that I can’t wait to see what happens next. The only blip in the entire affair for me is that I didn’t care for the unboxed block yellow letters in the narration, but there you have it.

4/06/15

SECRET WARS #1—After months of anticipation and a little more than two years of build-up, the 84th issue of Hickman’s Avengers run hits, and it is massive. There is all kinds of payoff here as the last two Earths have their own final incursion, and of course, it’s the good old 616 and the already-quite-often-rebooted 1610, otherwise known as the Ultimate Universe. Esad Ribic & Ive Svorcina provide interiors that are seismic enough to equal the huge scale of the proceedings. This issue pretty much delivers everything that we were expecting right here upfront, which is a welcome surprise, the 616 vs. Ultimate Universe, but Hickman is smart enough to burn all the way through that initial conflagration and on to the next thing, which will presumably be Battleworld, only Doom is also maybe already God and Reed has just lost his entire family. All kinds of shit raining down in this one, and we’re just getting going here. This is the only first issue of a Marvel event that I’ve read that is better than SECRET INVASION #1. Really fine work, all around.

SPIDER-GWEN #004 — Wow. This time out, we hit the brakes on the action-packed web-slinging and wall-crawling for the most part and instead just take emotional body blows at the old Parker homestead for the majority of the issue. Of COURSE in any reality, Aunt May knows exactly what to say to turn it all around for the heartsick teenager. Trading Peter “The Lizard” Parker for the 616 Uncle Ben in this iteration of the Spiderverse immediately felt like a masterstroke, but it isn’t until this issue that Latour really plunges us into the depths of what Gwen’s been feeling this entire time. And what a catharsis with the band. I suppose that it would be tough to pull off and make compelling for twenty pages in a row, but just the art alone on an all-The-Mary-Janes-concert issue sounds like the most wonderful thing. This was another beautiful single, the second in a row that not only completely delivers on the promise of that first episode but ups the ante and makes me really grateful that this title is so universally acclaimed and beloved and will hopefully be around for a long time to come. Like years, I mean.

CONVERGENCE: SPEED FORCE #2 — This is nothing but good fun. Meatloaf and macaroni & cheese. Perfectly inoffensive comfort comics. It wasn’t like pump-your-fist-in-the-sky awesome but enjoyable to folks who have missed Wally and would like to see him back in the fold. I was expecting a bit more of a conclusion or cliffhanger with regard to the main narrative, some kind of hook to make me want to dial into the main series, but I guess that’s not how they’re going to do things. The Zircher art on that GREEN ARROW preview is sick.

THE FOX: FOX HUNT #2 — What makes this a quality comic is that Haspiel & Waid have been producing excellent comics for such a long time and are both such masters of their craft that they know exactly what it takes to show up and hit every beat of what makes a superhero comic book enjoyable, regardless of how familiar the reader might be with the characters. Rather than evincing shame or offering in-text disclaimers to offset any awkwardness that they might be feeling by including necessary tropes of the genre, they appear to revel in their work and celebrate it. This positive energy is reflected in the artistic product. All of this pairs up really well with Larsen’s work on SAVAGE DRAGON. The moment when Paul throws up his lobster quesadillas while the bank-robber transforms into the brontosaurus guy is an instant classic. We throw subtlety out the window and revel in the over-the-top nature of the entire medium. There is a time for subtext, but this is not that time! He wants to quit, but life won’t let him, and neither will his son, and the bank robber turned into a monster, and so here is food poisoning vomit! And there is SPROING! It is a high-fiving good time for creator and reader alike. The “heroic ideal,” indeed.

SAVAGE DRAGON #203 — All of that stuff I just said here again. Every damn month, Larsen just cranks out the business. I can’t believe I’ve only been picking this title up for the past year. All love to Brother Matt Doman for his rabid acolyte insistence that I do so. This book does a fantastic job of juggling dramatic heartfelt moments with laugh-out-loud character beats, all with such heart that the characters feel real and completely fleshed out, even and especially sporting super-strength, fins on their heads, and Kirby krackle to spare.

ROCKET GIRL #6 — The time off has served Creative well, as we return with arguably the best-looking issue to date. The art is stunning. I can’t even parse if Reeder’s a better colorist or penciler. It doesn’t matter! Opening on Annie’s hot-dog-stand slap-fight is a charming way to bring us back in, but then you’ve got to love the flashback to Dayoung’s first day on the force. “By the book from now on.” Is that other officer from the future the son of Mr. T or something? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else use the term “jibber-jabber” before. Two slight hitches: I burned right through this issue and wish that there was a little bit more meat and overall narrative plot advancement to the proceedings this time out rather than just checking back in, and that last panel is completely jarring and comes out of nowhere (especially after the break), but these ad-free pages are so beautiful, all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.

JUPITER’S CIRCLE #2 — Frank Quitely doesn’t do anyone a favor when he provides the cover for an issue that doesn’t feature his interior art because no matter how good you are, you’re going to come up short. What gravitas, what body language. I was a little bit surprised that this issue was again pretty much ninety percent about Blue Bolt being potentially outed by Hoover, but the resolution of that plot makes me hope that Millar’s going to pass around the spotlight a bit more evenly now. Torres does deliver some fine work, I should say.

GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #8 — Oh 3-D Cowboy, our old pal, never leave us again and we will certainly afford you the same kindness! And always stay drunk. Very cool of past Star Fighter to use the go-to CCP Comics phrase of disparagement, “Eat a dick.” And the “I have no clue what I am looking at” is the kind of punchline that it takes multiple time-traveling incursions to earn.

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #10 — McKelvie/Wilson really outdo themselves here. That long shot of the two kids flying into Hyde Park over hundreds of thousands of fans congregating is some pretty special business. Those black hole masses of supplicants who can never get enough. I think Gillen is making some kind of commentary about the rampant and insatiable consumerism that is raging through Western society, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, London!

ZERO #16 — Taken as a single issue, this is a moderately interesting sequential adaptation of some core concepts of Burroughs with Ginsberg as his co-pilot. It’s too soon to be certain before all is said and done, but at this point though, in terms of the series as a whole, tucking the main narrative into the notion that it’s all being channeled by a drug-takin’ WSB in 1961 Tangiers really seems to cheapen and devalue the titular story and doesn’t add any new weight to the overall affair. It would be interesting to know if this was always the plan or Kot just like drank some ayahuasca tea before it was time to plan out the third arc and then just had The Best Most Important Idea Ever (Or, So It Seemed At The Time).

BEST OF WEEK: DESCENDER #3 — More gorgeous and glorious science fiction beauty. The plot thickens with regard to The Harvesters’ methodology, and our hero-bot is reunited with his creator. Nguyen continues to deliver magnificent work that straddles the line between expressionism and impressionism and that can only come from years of operating at the top of his game. Lemire keeps on imbuing his characters with small quirks and foibles that render them all the more human and fleshed out, even if most of them are robots. And that’s not even counting terrific sub- or meta-textual bits like TIM-21 being pulled out of what is for all intents and purposes a near-death experience only to then literally meet his maker. The deal is, on first blush this series doesn’t scan as like some really dense hardcore work of fiction. The premise is simple enough. But the more you engage with this apparently simple fable of a little robot who thinks and acts just like a real boy, the more you find right there beneath the surface. It is immediately easy to empathize with this character and want to protect him, to want nothing tragic to befall him. These guys make that simple narrative trick seem so easy, so effortless, but I can attest that achieving this level of craft is anything but. I know that art is subjective and suppose that some people’s mileage will always vary, but this is as good as comics gets right here for me, pure raw story seething and surging up from the heart of ideaspace, and they’re still really only just getting started.

4/29/15

BEST OF WEEK: THE MULTIVERSITY #2 — At long last, it comes to this. I had been meaning to go back through the entire deal but never had time so when it got to Wednesday, I made the questionable call to read every single issue from Page One on, meaning that my day at work was more than a little wobbly, but by the time it was time to read the new comics, I still had the GUIDEBOOK and MASTERMEN and ULTRA COMICS left, so before I even cracked this thing open, I had scorched my brain out with 340-something pages of all that had come before since waking up. And the finale is magnificent. It not only delivers incredibly satisfying resolution to the initial plot from #1 but was wonderful enough to veer around through several of the other Earths that we only got glimpses of through Guidebook entries, the rhyming of the SuperDemon of Earth-13 being the most wonderful breakout example. Apparently the Li’l Batman of Earth-42 met an unfortunate fate on Earth-17 after the last time we saw him, which was a very unfortunate Easter egg. Morrison does a great job balancing the ensemble. I still can’t believe not only how much panel-time that Captain Carrot got but how terrific he was throughout. Really almost the breakout character! And Red Racer runs up out of nowhere to steal the show. I was a huge fan of how he not only one-upped me by reading the entire back-catalogue in-between panels and then explicitly referenced Flash’s sacrifice in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. But for all of this sound and fury and dimension-hopping and resolution, this whole massive event turns out only to be the beginning. I could not believe it when Nebuloh, the adult universe of Qwewq, showed up at the end, but of course that’s so obvious in hindsight! And poor lost Multiverse-2! And the over-the-top madness of Operation Justice Incarnate! All so wonderfully counterbalanced by Nix Uotan’s own personal crisis to just make the rent. This was another masterpiece that ranks with Morrison’s finest work such as FLEX MENTALLO, NEW X-MEN, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, SEVEN SOLDIERS, and the brilliant BATMAN/FINAL CRISIS run. It is so inspiring to see such an imagination still firing at maximum capacity and getting wilder all the time.

BATMAN #40 — Way to make the line-wide event nonsense work for you! The last time something like this lined up so well was when Gaiman’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” was released during the post-FINAL-CRISIS time-zone when Bruce was apparently dead by Omega Effect, which lent the Gaiman/Kubert tale of Batman’s funeral an added resonance of being in-continuity and “counting” more than it certainly would have if it had been released opposite four other titles of Bruce Wayne swinging around and kicking ass that month. So, the deal here is that Snyder/Capullo/Miki/Plascencia bring at least The New 52 portion of their program crashing down around our protagonist’s pointy ears as the Endgame finally comes to a resolution that appears to be every bit as final as the entire arc has been teasing from the get-go. Over the past three and a half years, this team has done a hell of a job carving out a modern-day run that can stand tall with the all-time classics, and this finale, while not necessarily the definitive capstone on the entire endeavor, is definitely a compelling finale to all that has come before and worthy of being in the company of Miller, Morrison, and O’Neill.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #40 — First of all, good on DC for bringing in Kevin Maguire to draw the first nine pages of this book. No one can do Justice League for you like that man. And it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Lee/Williams and all of those other guys pitching in on the back end, there. Beautiful pages throughout, a hell of an art-jam issue. The story? Well, Johns basically does a cover version of Kirby’s classic “The Pact” from NEW GODS #8 and then borrows some pages from Morrison’s MULTIVERSITY GUIDEBOOK that just came out like three months ago and has Metron narrate the entire history of DC events to us in an attempt to fashion linearity out of corporate grand-unified-narrative insanity, all before introducing Darkseid’s daughter, who appears basically to just be the new Hot Topic version of Raven but is supposed to inspire dread. The art was terrific.

CONVERGENCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #1 — This is more the caliber of creative talent that I feel like they should have brought in across the board on this event. Wein/Cowan/Sienkiewicz lay some interesting groundwork here, juxtaposing the relationship between the Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson of Earth-2 with old Comrade Superman of the Red Son Earth-30. I was, in particular, a fan of the chemistry between Dick & Helena. We didn’t as much see them in action as get vignettes of how they related to one another, which was more compelling than just watching them beat dudes up. It looks like that might be over and done with, but it was nice while it lasted.

CONVERGENCE: SHAZAM #1 — Now, this business right here is exactly what I am talking about. Why couldn’t every CONVERGENCE title just knock it out of the damn park like Jeff Parker, Evan “Doc” Shaner, and Jordie Bellaire do here? This issue gives that THUNDERWORLD a run for its money, even! So so good. The characterization is spot-on. The art is intricate and fully realized but still stylized enough to match the cartoonier aspects of its subjects. There is adventure and just the right time to cry magic words. This was a wonderful wonderful Shazam issue, and we didn’t even have time for the Gotham by Gaslight folks. Which is a real shame. I would say, minimum, I would love to see a corresponding Gaslight solo issue before bringing the two together in one final issue, but I know that we’re just one more and done. It’s a shame. I would have devoured six issues of this business. I was certainly a fan of Parker’s AGENTS OF ATLAS a few years back, but he has struck gold again with this art team and these characters. Surely the best CONVERGENCE title of them all, just magical.

MORNING GLORIES #45 — Some pretty dark shit re: Jade, my friends. More rock-solid storytelling from that rascally Eisma. I like how Spencer starts off with Claire’s mother out in the road in 3.12 and then winds up with poor old Locke hanging out there at the end of 5.07. Glorious old MGA really has it in for its students’ parents, seems like!

BITCH PLANET #4 — All right, after getting some set-up out of the way, I found this done-in-one to be a bit more satisfying than the previous three issues. And that is not a reference to the obligatory shower scene(s). But the art is more banging than ever, Megaton seems like a pretty cool sport, and I’m digging the agency of our heroine as she refuses to get gamed by the system. Bring on #5!

SCARLET COUTURE #1 — I have been a fan of Des Taylor’s pin-up art for some time now and was happy to pick this up to support his foray into sequentials. This book is as good-looking as anyone familiar with his work would expect. There is a highly stylized and very bright Fleischer-by-way-of-Timm thing happening here that is very much its own thing. This fashion-meets-espionage gig is a solid thing to explore. It does seem like he might be limiting marketability with the dips into more adult language. While it’s certainly well within acceptability of the genre, the cartoonish style of the art could definitely draw in readers of any age.

PRINCESS LEIA #3 — Another stirring adventure as Leia, Evaan, and R2 blast their way through Stormtroopers, droids, giant monsters, and anything else that gets in between them and any stray Alderaan refugees. This refugee-pickup thing is very solid long-term motivation for our princess, and Waid does us a favor by advancing along the mole/spy plot pretty quickly, and the Dodsons/Bellaire continue to blow it up on every single page.

DAREDEVIL #015 — Another dynamite installment from one of the most consistently excellent creative teams making comics today. Matt’s new look continues to delight, the Owl’s apparently omniscient spyware is freakier and freakier, and an old friend returns just in time to welcome all of the kids tumbling into the situation from Netflix. It’s a testament to the overall strength of this run that I haven’t even missed him until now.

FANTASTIC FOUR #645 — And so we come to another end of The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine. Robinson/Kirk/Kesel/Aburtov certainly pull out all the stops here. It’s big and loud and guest-starring everybody, but of course, it all comes down to Val to save the day with the brightest intellect of all. Both of the Torches barely making it was also a nice touch. The creators did a fine job all around, but this issue might have suffered from getting billed as THE FINAL END, you know? I’m afraid that anyone who might care enough to get worked up about this title actually coming to a close is too jaded to believe that it could actually ever happen. There will be a new #1 in a few months, and if that volume makes it 54 issues, I guarantee that the next issue will be a milestone #700th issue, and we’ll be right back off to the races once again. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. The pages and pages of creators discussing their favorite covers was by far my favorite section. Kirby forever!

SILVER SURFER #011 — I knew that Slott & Allred were hyped about this ahead of time and with good reason. This comic is a damn Mobius strip, twisting and wrapping around itself with the content of the power cosmic and a stray chrono-cannon providing the reason for the form and resulting in a delirious and intoxicating sequential experience that leaves the reader as disoriented as our heroes. It’s almost a shame to resolve the new Battlestar Galactica status quo established last issue so quickly, but this was a hell of a way to do it. All the while, Slott never loses sight of his characters and even manages to make us care about a couple of supporting players’ points of view who I don’t even think we’ll revisit, all the while pushing the narrative forward. And the Allreds outdo themselves, turning in the best-looking stack of pages yet, never even mind the upside-down flip-book trickery. This continues to be an incredible run on a character that almost no one manages to get right.

AVENGERS #044 — This one let me down a bit. That plays into expectations I brought into the situation. I knew going in that this was going to feed into SECRET WARS, but I still expected there to be some sort of solid milestone resolution. This has been a hell of a run that has managed to steadily escalate and raise the stakes across a combined 77 issues pumped out in a little more than two years, just as fast as Mighty Marvel could super-collide them into being, and while I wasn’t expecting a definitive THE END, or certainly not even anything as perfect and beautiful as the two-part finale of Hickman’s FANTASTIC FOUR/FF run, I was hoping for more than a zoom-out and a “See You Next Week for SECRET WARS!” There were several memorable moments. You have to love T’Challa giving it to Obama straight or Ultimate Reed introducing Nick Fury & Hawkeye to 616 Thanos & Maximus (a nice bit of lettering there, keeping the Ultimate guys in lower-case and juxtaposing the 616 villains in all-caps). The long flashback to Steve & Tony in the diner was certainly trying to hearken back to the whole genesis of this thing, but it felt forced. The Kev Walker art didn’t help. While Stefano Caselli brought the usual justice, Walker’s perfectly serviceable efforts did not mesh well nor seem to be of the A-list caliber that a finale like this should merit. It is unfortunate that Hickman’s old S.H.I.E.L.D. collaborator couldn’t have made it in for a few pages instead. I don’t know, maybe with the Civil War now brewing in the Mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe (not to mention the impending horror-show of Snyder & Goyer trying to blow up all of their Superman & Batman toys), I’m just tired of watching my heroes pitted against one another, but it was kind of a drag to have the grand summation of this deal amount to nothing greater than Captain America and Iron Man repulsor-raying and beating the shit out of each other under red Crisis skies, of all things. Maybe all of this will seem more awesome in hindsight, and I am certainly still looking forward to SECRET WARS next week, but as the finale of a truly epic run judged on its own merits, this one came up short for me.

NEW AVENGERS #033 — On the other hand, this one worked. I don’t know if it’s because the first issue lowered my expectations, or if I’m just still such a fan of Hickman carrying over his six-years-and-running mastery of Doom from the FF run, or if it was that last-page twist framing the timeline of all of this, but this one landed for me. Deodato/Martin once again absolutely burned it down on the interiors. It was interesting to get the secret origin of the Black Swans and all of the machinations that have been driving our extra-dimensional antagonists for this entire run. Bring on the carnage. There is only SECRET WARS!

4/22/15

BEST OF WEEK: STAR WARS #004 — The pacing on this series has been a really cool thing where every single issue after the first one has ended on a beat that felt like a solid resolution to any sort of arc that the reader might feel like arbitrarily imposing, but the story just continues unfolding, the plot ever thickening. Aaron mines some good fun out of Vader hanging out at Jabba’s palace for a few pages before we check in on our banged-up heroes in the aftermath of all that action on Cymoon 1. Luke bitches out Leia in a pitch-perfect young Mark Hamill whine before a gang of set-up for next issue. Not only are Vader and Jabba chilling on Tatooine, but there’s a mysterious new bounty hunter with a really cool voice-actuated scattergun crashing the party, in addition to an old favorite, and oh look, now Luke & R2 are headed in that direction, as well. I foresee a shootout at the old Kenobi homestead! Cassaday/Martin continue to absolutely burn it down to the ground. Be sure to blast this cut starting at 2:40 as soon as you start reading this issue. The effect is powerful. 

ALL-NEW X-MEN #040 — It’s funny. Well, actually, it’s really frustrating. But every time there’s some chance for a plot-twist to grab some mainstream hype, the Big Two will always announce it ahead of time and ruin it for anyone who actually shows up every Wednesday to help keep the book in print. And I didn’t hear any official announcement on this one, but every-damn-body, pros, friends of mine, so many people felt fine talking about it on Facebook 48 hours before the damn thing came out (pun intended, oh no). And not just talking about it, debating the pros and cons and implications of it, and I’m just like, “Could we please read it first before forming an opinion?” At any rate, Iceman is gay now. Or has always been, according to Bendis. It’s actually an interesting little wrinkle in your standard coming-out situation because the individual in this case is a time-displaced character whose modern-day version hasn’t ever really seemed demonstratively gay. But 39 issues of hanging out in the present seem to have unlocked something inside of young Robert Drake. The reveal is, of course, completely damaged by the advance hype, so it’s hard to judge it on its own merits. It definitely hit me as pretty arbitrary and out-of-nowhere. But at least it’s only Page 6, so there’s two-thirds of issue left. The subsequent conversation is definitely an idealized best-case scenario of being outed by your telepathic friend. It’s a pretty on-the-nose move to double-down on Bobby being a persecuted minority, given the whole metaphorical “feared and hunted” set-up with this book from the get-go, but it will be interesting to see what happens next. I’m pretty sure that Bendis is almost done with these crazy mutants, though, no? This run doesn’t really seem like it’s about to wind up. Is he just going to leave the kids in the present? That would be an odd play for the Trade Federation. I dug Maria Hill banging her head on her screen at even the thought of more mutant madness. And Mahmud Asrar, man, what a monster that guy is. I really loved that bucolic shot of the team just lying in a circle in the grassy meadow just the way young mutants do.

CONVERGENCE: THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1 —Now, this did my heart good. I grew up with the original Wolfman/Perez run, and from this first page, the tone is just right there where it’s always been. There’s no doubt in your mind who Donna is talking to from the very first bubble. Man, it’s just good to see Donna in the old red one-piece again. The interaction between Vic and Gar. Dick telling Donna he’s sorry. Kori’s bloodlust, bless her. I really didn’t care about the other team at all, would have been just happy with an issue of these folks having down-time. Nicola Scott joins Mr. Wolfman and does Mr. Perez proud with dynamic and detailed sequential work throughout. Admittedly, the nostalgia factor might be clouding my usual absolutely unbiased critical acumen, but that’s kind of the point of this whole deal anyway, it kind of seems? A welcome stroll down memory lane.

CONVERGENCE: THE FLASH #1 — I was glad to check in on Wally and the kids but certainly couldn’t say no to this gorgeous Allred cover. The inside’s working, as well. Abnett scripts a relatable unpowered Barry who remains interesting even when he can’t run fast (it probably doesn’t hurt that he meets Bruce Wayne for coffee, admittedly). Our hero regaining his power is a great moment that Dallocchio completely sells. The one problem is that I don’t really care in any way about this version of Superman from maybe the Tangent Universe? We’ll see how it all shakes down next issue.

EMPIRE: UPRISING #1 — Well, what a surprise and delight this was. I had no idea that Waid/Kitson even had this in the hopper until the Wednesday it came out, truly a wonderful thing to stumble upon. It’s been ten years for us but only one for Golgoth, and our evil protagonist is as inscrutable and fearsome as ever. The rebels have some cajones this issue but are, of course, as doomed as ever. Like the first volume, the real tension looks like it’s going to reside in the form of Golgoth’s lieutenants and the moves they make against or alongside their dread master. A welcome return, to be sure.

CHEW #48 — The capricious heart of Layman knows no bounds, not only resurrecting the vile Mike Applebee but straight-up assuring us that he will totally be around many years later in #60 to still be hating on poor Tony Chu, who it looks like might have lost everybody else except for Caesar. That’s all to come, though. Olive has plenty of agency here, proving that a little thing like The Collector slicing up her face so apparently fatally a few months back isn’t going to slow her down one bit, now that she’s up and at ’em. Guillory continues to absolutely put it down. Four-fifths of the way through its run, and this title remains one of the very best and most consistently entertaining books on the rack.

SATELLITE SAM #13 — Roaring into the serious endgame as Mike, at least, thinks he’s solved his father’s murder and is on the way to dispense justice with a full can of gasoline. And there’s certainly a grim development for poor Gene. I hope Libby comes running up toting a sawed-off shotgun to resolve that particular issue. Hey, it would be in character for her at this point. Chaykin is still an animal. Fraction continues to stretch out a bit here. It will definitely be interesting to see how they wind up these last couple of issues.

VELVET #10 — More solid spycraft from the Brubaker/Epting/Breitweiser machine. There’s nothing flashy about this, and most of the pages are darker than a Zach Snyder Superman movie, but the milieu is a perfect fit for the story, and we can’t help but root for our heroine as she makes moves and countermoves against her faceless, potentially legion, opponents. But in the letters column, Brubaker says that she’s going back home to America next issue? Is this the first that we’ve heard that she’s not a Brit? I’ve been reading her accent wrong in my head for over a year now!