9/09/15

PHONOGRAM: THE IMMATERIAL GIRL #2 — I like it. The deal with the A-Ha video is still charming and impressive and all. But I don’t know, y’all. Does this one read as a bit too samey to THE WICKED + THE DIVINE to anyone else? I’m already recognizing that Volume 2 of this title hit me at this like once-in-a-lifetime magical-moment sweet spot owing to where I was as a human being right at that time compounded by the fact that I could not bloody lay hands on #3 or #4 for weeks and weeks, which made the anticipation so much greater than if I’d just been on board picking up the singles from the get-go, so I’m not like expecting every issue of this third volume to have anything like the effect that THE SINGLES CLUB had on me, but this one just seemed to not quite be firing on as many cylinders. Or maybe failing to escalate from last issue? That might be it. I don’t know. There’s just not as much magic, Shambles. At least in the main feature. On the first pass through, I was a little bit bummed and kind of crumpled up until I turned to that back-up story “The Ice Storm” and cued up that The Go! Team track like you’re supposed to do, and I tell you what, I read those five pages over and over and over again for 4:12 and was bedazzled and impressed and enchanted and put the book down with a smile on my face and that song in my heart and didn’t even remember any of those other things I was thinking about the lead feature until I sat down to write this review. This book really is magic. Sometimes, most times, when you least expect it.

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #14 — Is it wrong for me to feel cheated that they didn’t go with PHONOGRAM for the remix idea? And will I ever stop comparing this poor book to PHONOGRAM? A cool idea, the re-re-mix. I had no problem with it and actually didn’t even really start to spot it until halfway through, which possibly speaks to how frozen-fried all of those Go! Team chimes made me. I particularly dug on the McKelvie design on that double-page Who’s Next? spread right at the end. God, I miss YOUNG AVENGERS. This book will always make me yearn for all the others, apparently. So, of course this is the one they say they’re going to do for sixty issues.

DARTH VADER #009 — Well, this is apparently a Gillen hat-trick right here all of a sudden. For all the lightsaber action, this issue doesn’t really burn too much down, preferring to let the tension between Vader and the Emperor’s new guy (I forget his name, it’s not in the crawl, and no one addresses him directly all issue long; the “Fourth World Saga” this is not, my young Padawans!) simmer along, which is just fine. I could have used a few more pages with scene-stealers Dr. Aphra, BT, and 000, the former of whom at least must be eking out a limited lifespan. I mean, if I find myself suddenly indentured to that particular Dark Lord of the Sith above all others, the laaaaast thing I’m going to be doing is sneaking around the galaxy trying to scrape together a little bit of change and hope he never gets around to sensing any disturbances. If I was doing one thing in secret on Lord Vader’s watch, I’d be devoting every instant of spare time to figuring out the most surefire way to decapitate the fellow or trick him on to a rocket to the sun or something.

BEST OF WEEK: STAR WARS – JOURNEY TO THE FORCE AWAKENS: SHATTERED EMPIRE #1 — Well, I wasn’t going to pick up any post-VI canon until VII lands because I want to go in fresh, but I couldn’t say no to Rucka and that gorgeous Noto cover (which is perfect except it seems like probably Luke shouldn’t be showing any teeth; a grim little smile would do just fine, he’s either about to or just gone done burning his father’s body), and I am certainly glad that I picked it up. The first half of this issue drops in on the closing moments of the Battle of Endor, specifically what Lieutenant “Green-6” Bey was getting up to. Depicting a classic Star Wars dogfight-in-space in sequential form is no minor accomplishment, and the creative team does excellent work translating the excitement and momentum that we’ve come to expect from those things into this medium. There’s a nice little retcon where our new protagonist helps Commander Skywalker and aforementioned father’s body escape the doomed Death Star onboard that faithful old Imperial shuttle Tydirium before the lieutenant reunites with her true love amidst the sounds of wub-wub down below, going on to undoubtedly conceive Oscar Isaac that very night before goddang Han musters Dad-to-be right out of there first thing next morning. You really hope old Dameron makes it back from this one. Widowmaker’s not a good look for Han, but Daddy Dameron has done his job in terms of sperm-production. In terms of art, Marco Checchetto goes above and beyond, rendering iconic likenesses and intricately lined starships with apparent ease and always with an eye for ideal composition. This is yet another terrific opening issue of the new Marvel Star Wars, and I am definitely all in and looking forward to much more to come.

BITCH PLANET #5 — I thought “Bitch Planet” was the sub-title of my Gillen hat-trick review. But, seriously. This one keeps up the pace that #4 set. I’m still loving the De Landro art but not convinced or compelled by the amount of characterization Deconnick is packing in here. Or not. I just don’t care about these people. The backmatter talks about the creators falling in love with a doomed character or how cruel it’s going to be to give us her backstory next issue, but not enough of that passion transferred into the project to make it through the page to at least me. Folks in the letters column certainly feel differently. I wish I was more into it. Still picking this up as a curiosity but not terribly pumped about it, as I will be whenever that new PRETTY DEADLY hits.

INJECTION #5 — So. That’s everything with the origin pretty much explained and the present-day crisis resolved. I’ve made mention of it the past couple of issues, but the shape of this entire opening arc has just been odd. Pleasant odd. Or unpleasant in a lovely way. But certainly its own strange beast. It’s always a pleasure to see Uncle Warren writing exactly what it at least appears that he wants to, and Shalvey/Bellaire just look better and better together. I look forward to this team recharging their various creative energies and returning with the second arc as soon as possible.

A-FORCE #004 — Maybe they shouldn’t have put the big splash-page traitor reveal on the cover with basically the exact same layout? Not that it’s such a surprise, really, but it always disturbs me when they do this*. Deadline hustle is beginning to creep in here. You can tell that there are two inkers and one is moving a bit faster than the other, though I have no idea who’s who. Overall, though, the story remains crisp and scoots right along. And of course, that is one hell of a final double-page splash. Beautiful colors from Laura Martin, as ever. This is the first time I’ve read TO BE CONCLUDED on one of these minis and thought, “Awwww . . .”

STARFIRE #4 — This series remains a welcome breath of breezy fun starring a female protagonist with agency to spare who only happens to be a knockout gorgeous alien who leaves men drooling in her wake and whose innate goodness and optimism and automatic trust that actually borders on naïveté makes her all the more endearing. I was initially a little slow on the uptake, but Conner/Palmiotti have clearly imported this Atlee character in from their much-lauded-though-as-yet-unread-by-me run on POWER GIRL. I also dug that part at the end when Stella the sheriff hit threshold and lost her shit at the amount of nonsense that has erupted in Key West these past four issues. The most evocative image of the issue is wisely left off-panel: aforementioned sheriff underwater and punching the hell out of nothing/everything as a form of stress relief. I will say that as cool as it is to have three such strong female characters hanging out together and passing the Bechdel test all the time, I’m about ready for Sol and/or Boone or anybody else to graduate from the ogling-Kory/drooling-in-her-wake stage that has been this book’s go-to from the get-go. Lots to love in this title, though, not the least of which is the seamless efficiency that it has thus far coasted from issue to issue, each featuring a conflict with satisfactory resolution every time while always setting up the next thing, whetting readers’ appetites for the following issue.

GOTHAM ACADEMY #10 — This book is still such a fun ride, as dark as it is. I thought the first season of BUFFY (coming to it a few years after the whole series had ended, mind) was over-hyped shit and couldn’t begin to catch a glimpse of what everyone loved so much until, I think, the seventh episode when the gang for some reason had to get involved with a production of “Macbeth” and everything started to suddenly gel and become wonderful, so I immediately wondered if this was a callback to that. It’s executed with a far greater amount of craft, skill, and finesse, as I’ve loved these characters from Day One. This is a terrific and very satisfying done-in-one with a surprise villain whose presence seems perfectly obvious in hindsight. Kerschl/Lapointe/Msassyk continue to produce beautiful pages and craft memorable characters, and Cloonan/Fletcher are welcome to filch dialogue from The Bard as often as they like. Love this book.

BATMAN #44 — Usually a mid-arc fill-in is not something you want to have happen. Particularly with this book’s regular stellar team. But of course, old Jock is welcome any time, and this issue has more meat on its bones and very satisfying done-in-one qualities than most that have come down the pike in the last little bit here. It’s a nice shot of what we know and love about these mythos cast through more of a relatively topical filter (guest-co-writer Azzarello’s sensibilities no doubt tipping in here, and probably responsible for the third-person, I suspect) that almost conjures what might happen if David Simon brought his literary sensibilities and unflinching cameras to Gotham. We return to the era immediately following Zero Year, a young Batman still learning on the job every single night and a Gordon who does not disguise his awe at this still-new addition to the GCPD’s efforts. Despite the over-sized page count, this is a lean tale that pulls no punches, not letting the fantastic content of Langstrom serums and millionaire vigilantes temper the social concerns it calls into question. It is interesting that Superman has been directly dealing with police brutality in ACTION just these past couple of months and then here we have this, a powerful piece of sequential fiction that rewards rereading and will probably stand as one of the best singles of the year, which is no great surprise from the team who brought us “The Black Mirror” too long ago, but it is still a gift for which we should remain grateful.

ACTION COMICS #44 — And but then, I flew through this. No joke intended. Lee gets an upgrade that gives her so little cause for concern right off the bat that surely it’s not going to be good news in the long haul, while the big guy receives yet another dose of humility and being put in his place, but takes it in the good humor and centered spirit that he embodies. Pak/Kuder continue their run bringing the Man of Steel a bit more down to Earth but as noble and inspirational as ever. Thank goodness.

*while I’m voicing minor irritation at that, though, please indulge me in shrieking indolent raaaaaage at that fucking X-Men ad Marvel’s got inserted at every center staple so that you can’t miss it no matter what, even if your friend tries to hand you the book and you miss it and drop the issue and it opens up right there on the ground, it will still turn to that page and spoil the lineup for the new Lemire/Ramos** team, which normally wouldn’t be such a big deal, I mean nobody really gave a shit about knowing who the classic Blue/Gold teams were going to be ahead of time (back when Jim Lee convinced Marvel to go along with his bold vision for this group of merry mutants and not worry about what that other guy who’d been doing it for the past sixteen years thought), I mean, it seemed a little odd that Scott & Jean weren’t going to be on the same team, but oh well, only flash-forward to the present, the really absolute bullshit transpiring in the here and now is that the mere presence of certain individuals in this particular image goes a pretty far way toward ruining the endings of at least two (at least two, I looked away as soon as I realized what I was seeing) series that I am currently reading whose last issues have not been published as of yet, one of which, even MORE gallingly was originally solicited for May and then pushed back all the way to October, to the confusion of everyone up to and including the writer and architect of the entire situation, I speak of the final installment of Brian Michael Bendis’s excellent years’-long run split between ALL-NEW . . . & UNCANNY X-MEN, but the entire super-tense thing about his entire run from the first issue that I have been loving all this time is: what is going to be the final fate of the teenage X-Men who were picked up from #8? Well, now I and anyone else who picked up a Marvel comic this week know what’s going to happen to one/some of them. And this image wouldn’t have spoiled the ending of this multi-year running story that I have been happy to pour twelve dollars a month into if they had just fucking released it when they originally said they were going to. A serious dick move. A Frank-Miller-writing-Batman-level dick move, Marvel. End of rant in public, but never in my heart.

**a creative team that, of course, I am super pumped about seeing get their hands on the mutants, all of the bile washing up in the remainder of that first footnote up there notwithstanding

9/02/15

MIRACLEMAN #1 (#17) — And so we come to the golden age of Our Neil. As-quick-as-possible context-check since this issue for all intents and purposes is a straight-up reprint: Before Marvel finally started reprinting these, I had read the first half of the Moore run but had no idea how it ended and was therefore riveted to finally pick up the tale; thought that it definitely started relatively coasting a bit in the early double-digits before landing hard there in the final three issues with Totelben, #16 in particular standing out as one of the strongest capstones in all of Moore’s various acclaimed runs; aaaand I’ve consumed pretty much I think just about everything Gaiman has ever pumped out over the years, comics, prose, got the Mirrormask DVD on the shelf, still dissolve into a complete puddle any time anybody even mentions that Helena Bonham Carter clone they got to play the T.A.R.D.I.S. on “The Doctor’s Wife,” etc., and like any regular consumer of monthly periodicals such as yourself, I have also been an ardent supporter of Mark Buckingham’s work on FABLES for all this time as well, All Of Which Is To Say that I was very very interested to see what trouble these gentlemen were getting into over on this title back when good old Our Neil was just hitting his stride on that “The Doll’s House” arc of SANDMAN in regular monthlies. And but let’s also all together just take a minute to appreciate how horrific of a following gig this really was, one of the worst of all time. Think Romita Sr. crashing in to Ditko’s situation back in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39 or, exponentially more terrifying later on, easing the reader through the passing of the greatest run of all time with FANTASTIC FOUR #103 (we shall not even speak his name but to say King), or certainly Alan Brennert found himself in an unenviable situation when tasked with the scripting of DAREDEVIL #192, Klaus Janson’s surely-much-appreciated continued presence notwithstanding. These monster runs, Ditko & Kirby giving birth to Spidey and Marvel’s First Family and Miller showing us just how great Daredevil could be, what Alan Moore & Leach/Davis/Totelben/et al. accomplished in those first sixteen issues of MIRACLEMAN deserves to be spoken of with the exact same reverence and awe. This run was monumental and cannot be overstated and actually not fully appreciated unless you were someone who was tweaking out at the newsstand waiting for the next installment and then running home to your tiny one room to take down some more speed and find out what happened next just as fast as you could, a sub-set of consumer that Warren Ellis has gone on record as not only claiming membership in but defining and of which I was just a bit too young to partake in sadly. But the much-discussed deconstructionism tendencies of the mid-eighties, applying actual laws of physics and even realistic characterization to Silver-Age-inspired insanity, all of that business that was supposed to have caught critical mass in hallowed 1986, it actually got started with a dream of flying in 1981 first composed by the at-the-time reigning word fountain in all of comics, who then a few years later handed the keys to Olympus to his protégé, a young tousle-haired thirty-year-old with only a couple of DC titles under his belt that would eventually stand out among others as shining examples of what a line for mature readers should look like when they figured out to call such a thing Vertigo three entire years later.

So, though. The beauty of this issue, this new beginning, is that if you know all of that and are turning the pages with baited breath (accrued and magnified all these years later, even) to see how exactly Gaiman/Buckingham/D’Israeli/Klein rose to the formidable challenge or but also if you have no idea about any of that and someone just put this issue in your hands and said, “You must read this,” it will just about hit you in the same way. All of the framing craziness is in the recap but actually barely creeps in on the actual reading experience. We’re a couple of years later and four pilgrims are making their way up thousands and thousands of steps to the peak of Olympus to seek an audience with our eponymous hero to quote pray. This story isn’t about Michael Moran or Miracleman and really almost isn’t even about the pilgrims, it’s about this new world that we’re in, the Golden Age, and their journey, their climb. It’s all about getting acclimated to the new rhythms of this story that resound almost the same as what’s gone before but with new harmonic overtones unlike anything we’ve seen thus far. And even in this world of seemingly limitless hope, there are still surprises. All told, while Buckingham’s art is suitably grandiose and majestic, the plot of this parable appears on the surface relatively sparse and plain, owing a linear and thematic debt to Chaucer, while still communicating to the reader that we have journeyed to an entirely new place never glimpsed before in all of comics, not even in this very title that has been so groundbreaking up until now. This world has changed and will never be the same and we are only with each and every turn of the page just beginning to learn what sort of realm in which we find ourselves. And the story is only beginning . . .

GRANT MORRISON’S 18 DAYS #3  — Well. An all-flashback issue to the birth of our antagonist is certainly something that I didn’t in any way expect here. But it works. It’s certainly a pretty creepy deal, the specifics of the birth that I won’t divulge here. But this was actually probably a pretty necessary call, as it has seemed like kind of a weird set-up in the first two issues, how unbalanced it is, like Arjuna’s crew is clearly on the side of the “good guys” and Duryodhana has very much been cast as the villain thus far, so it is interesting to rewind all the way back to check out the horrifying circumstances of his birth, showing what a loyal great guy Bheema is along the way at no extra charge. This is a reasonably engrossing series that seems to be still just barely getting started. Isn’t the whole deal supposed to be Krishna explaining all the hidden truths of the universe to Arjuna out in the middle of the battlefield right before the battle erupts? I’m not making that up, that’s THE BHAGAVAD GITA, right? This book is just going to blow up here at some point, but it’s quite compelling all along the way already.

CASANOVA: ACEDIA #4 — All right, this is a lovely and charming issue of something, but is has so little to do with LUXURIA and GULA, it might as well be a different series. Hooray for artistic growth? I mean, I get that this is a flashback starring the guy who’s Casanova’s* boss in the new timeline, but that’s just a pretty strange move for the final issue of an arc. This is the final issue of the arc? I don’t know, I don’t want to be one of those cliché “His shit was better back when, man,” sort of guys, I seldom ever am, we all know the back half of The Beatles discography is clearly the stronger situation, but over here, this is just scanning as one more book Fraction is knocking out in between banging out television noir erotica for Chaykin to draw all beautiful-like or of course the deep time-stoppin’ orgasm insanity going down with that Chipper, as opposed to back when, those first two volumes of CASANOVA, when it was readily apparent to one and all that dude was like cutting open the veins on his wrist and pouring that into the ink they used to print the comics. All that green and blue was Fraction-blood! And those were some of my favorite comics ever. These are certainly still good. Bá shows up and knocks the lights out on the main feature. This one’s just not giving me an extra-dimensional six-fingered death-punch like the old shit used to. Man. Still loving the Chabon business, though. The ? & the Mysterians answer was disco perfection. Maybe give us more than three to five pages of this one of these days.

PROVIDENCE #4 — All right, I liked this one better than last issue. I don’t know if it was the more rural horror or what, but this one sat a little bit better with me. It just felt a little bit more old school, or maybe the lead wasn’t quite so detestable? Whatever the case, it was a nice little jolt of the scary business. And even though we ventured far away from the streets of the city, Burrows continues to drop the Gibbons compositional greatness throughout. Strong storytelling work throughout.

PLUTONA #1 — ooooohh, Jeff Lemire, you are so good. I certainly never doubted that this would be another great one, and that has already proven to be the case. Emi Lenox shows up with a style perfectly suited to chronicle our middle-school-aged characters who have stumbled upon the body of our eponymous heroine by issue’s end. There’s a very cool Spielbergian going-about-the-regular-business-of-growing-up vibe running throughout the issue that grounds this whole thing and is no doubt going to make for very compelling characterization going forward. Fans of DESCENDER, TRILLIUM, SWEET TOOTH, get on board now. Lemire is still right at it.

8house #3: KIEM — Well, no surprise, but Brandon Graham does it again again again. Of course, a massive amount of credit must be heaped upon Xurxo G. Penalta, who produces very finely rendered full color art on 30 stunning pages that looks like it took him a very nearly Nate-Powell level of time/detail/tightly-focused-insanity to accomplish. But this is yet another glorious edition of the more European mode of hard science-fiction that Graham has been perfecting these past few years, this time based on the exploits of a soldier who is projected into the reanimated corpse of her twin who has been shot far into space to the crucial place where he needs to be. Lots of space in the pages and room for the story to breathe, so we’re just getting started here, but you can take a bath in this art. And of course, if you love MULTIPLE WARHEADS or Graham & co’s take on PROPHET or any of the other 8house fare or the NONPLAYER reference made you crinkle your ears, of course you can’t afford to miss this one.

JUPITER’S CIRCLE #6 — This one started out like great fun and certainly seems to be laying some overall compelling groundwork for the shitstorm that eventually erupts over in the main book, but that’s all macro. As an experience unto itself, this issue totally fizzled out. I mean, there’s no ending, right? Because that was an anti-ending. It was even more confusing that they made a deal about this being the end of Volume I. Huh. Issue #s 2 and 4 certainly had more resounding endings. I guess we’re supposed to be all unsettled about all the horrible things that happen much later. It is pretty cute how pumped Millar is about Skyfox being the best character he’s ever created in the same column where people are like, “I love what you’ve done with the Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark archetype.” Not exactly breaking new ground here. Good fun, though, to be certain.

BOMBSHELLS #2 — Well, this one might actually be better than the first issue. The advancement of the Diana plot was certainly very compelling. I love the anyone-can-show-up vibe. Why not cue Mera? Of course, this philosophy plays out in spades there at the end when I was expecting the action to cut to Gotham and it most resoundingly did not. Those surprise guest stars are acceptable! And I feel like a fool, but all last issue and this one, I kept being like, “Okay, that’s Kara, but who’s the other one?” This book was cool enough when it was just the three originally announced leads, but certainly the more the merrier.

THORS #3 — The art quality has seriously plummeted from the first issue. And these guys are both so talented on their own (and when they’re not on deadline, I suppose). Aaron’s script certainly keeps things humming along, but I’m not quite as thrilled about the whole deal as I was after #1. Bring on another TO BE CONCLUDED . . .

SILVER SURFER #014 — Man, reading this, you almost get the sensation that that whole SECRET WARS universe-erasing situation that Hickman and his buddies have been up to lately was actually done in service of Slott & Allred’s terrific idea about what to do with Norrin & Dawn next over on this title right here. It’s interesting that Slott scripts Dawn to bring up Utopia early on because I was certainly picking up on that vibe, the whole divide-and-conquer thing. And the split-page at the end seems to bear that out on some level. Is Dawn really the true power source? Some kind of Celestial Madonna situation? Are still allowed to even use that title? This is certainly one for the ages. Hey, Silver Surfer blows up Galactus! What more d’ya want out of your mighty Marvel magazine periodical?!?

DAREDEVIL #018 — Class act. That is certainly how you do it. I actually had no idea that this run was coming to an end until last issue, so this whole deal just about took me by surprise, but of course, it was quality all the way. And it had all the things that we DD fans want most. Matt got to dress up in the mask of a dead man and go WHAP!WHAP!WHAP! on Wilson Fisk’s face/body and be repeatedly smacked upon in return, as is the nature of their relationship. He got to smell his friend’s newly remissive body chemistry, classic Murdock-style good news. He got shut down, if not actually disbarred (I think?), and but most of all, his best friend told him exactly what makes him such a good and great Matt, which is all any of us could ever ask for. Cue that sudden inexplicable in-costume diving-out-into-the-middle-of-the-night double-splash. Because it doesn’t have to make sense. We’re just grateful to have been taken along for the ride. Misters Waid, Samee, Rodriguez, Wilson, Caramagna, and Martin and Rivera and everybody else, thank you so much for making ol’ Hornhead fun again and still as great as he ever was. One of the greatest runs in a noble tradition of magnificent runs on the character.

*or whatever his name is now

8/26/15

EAST OF WEST #20 — The art on this book is consistently stunning. Dragotta/Martin tear it up every chance they get with iconic jaw-dropping business. Hickman’s just not making these people come alive for me, though. With the exception of Xioalian and the little brilliant Genesis VR dude who’s on the cover but not in this issue, I absolutely do not care about a single member of this massive spanning ensemble. It’s a very strange corporate vs. creator-owned dichotomy because of course his FF run is one of my favorite things ever and while alllll of those massive ideas and ever-escalating plot engines were more of the deal in his AVENGERS leviathan than any sort of calm human interaction between any of those 18 + 6 people, both of those runs were fairly to completely riveting. But then you get this crew here, and the THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS gang to a lesser extent, and the more time goes by, the more I feel like Hickman needs to dial up the empathetic characterization aspect on whatever massive charts he’s making to keep all of his shit straight (I know that there’s no chart for THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, but still). I want to be all-in on these titles. I just can barely be bothered to remember these characters’ names. The art is slamming, but we need more.

LOW #9 — On the other hand. I DID NOT REALIZE THAT DELLA WAS A CAINE DURING HER PREVIOUS DONE-IN-ONE APPEARANCE. I also skipped the Previously… this month, which I usually don’t do. Therefore, it wasn’t until Tajo crashed in wearing the Helm Suit that it all came together for me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That shit was devastating! Remender is knocking it down to the ground. Strong strong character work. Again, he made such a good call bailing on the corporate situation. This is clearly where he needs to be. And Tocchini/McCaig continue crushing it, seemingly surpassing themselves month after month. Serious respect for what’s going on here.

OLD MAN LOGAN #004 — I guess it was only a matter of time before our old man here started berzerkering through the zombie symbiotes, which of course Sorrentino draws the absolute hell out of. Nice crossover here with Jennifer from A-FORCE, that’s called Brand Synergy, boys and girls! This series has overall been pretty light fare from a plot standpoint but a visual delight, which I suppose is a solid fit for (and extension from) the original source material. I was completely all right seeing the TO BE CONCLUDED . . .  on the last page, though, it certainly does seem like this train’s gone far enough the tracks and it’s indeed about time to shut it on down.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #9 — New Kirby! I mean, it’s really a couple pages of old pre-Steranko Fury Kirby that Steranko actually inked as an editor’s test to get the STRANGE TALES gig in the first place, but it’s the first time I’ve laid eyes on it. And Waid spins up some magic out of that fifty-year-old artifact from the King’s imagination, in one fell swoop reconciling Hickman’s engrossing expansion of the S.H.I.E.L.D. mythos several years back right into the Coulson era, even managing to work in an allusion to one of the last episodes of THE PRISONER. Pretty impressive work, right there, making for a very interesting set-up going forward. Lee Ferguson delivers perfectly serviceable sequentials, though you wish they would have signed up some A-list talent to mark the occasion. Overall, an excellent lead feature. The Ewing-scripted pilot/preview (?) for THE HOWLING COMMANDOS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. was garbage, though. It’s a bit late to be ripping off the actual Creature Commandos, boys and girls. Far too late. This is all mitigated, however, by the reprint of the first-ever S.H.I.E.L.D. story that eventually saw the light of day in STRANGE TALES #135 with pencils by Kirby, natch. I’ve also never laid eyes on those pages and that first splash of the helicarrier is just as stunning all these years later and having seen it hundreds of times by now. There was never, will never again be anyone like Kirby. Rest in peace, King.

GRAYSON #11 — Janin is just scary. The pages open exceptionally enough, but that psychedelic swirl weirdness there toward the end is completely out of control. Terrific nemesis scripting, as well, that guy really knows how to break our boy down. And then, wow, once again, the writers are delighted to not as much upset the apple cart but straight-up pulverize it to smithereens there in those last couple of scenes. This is such a good damn book all by itself but makes for a lovely pairing with the further adventures of the Burnside Barbara, see: following.

BATGIRL #43 — What else can I say? Every four weeks, they keep pumping out the loveliness like clockwork. Upgrading Frankie’s situation is a very good call, not even counting her suddenly getting all flirty with “Qadir, cutie.” The writing is terrific, but Babs Tarr is starting to freak me out; she’s only getting better and better. As dynamic as the action scenes are, I think I dig our heroine in overalls just putting her hands on her hips and looking all “What the f@#k?” even more. This title is the uncut loveliness and everyone needs to be reading it for always.

SUPERMAN #43 — So of course Lois wasn’t an evil opportunistic story-breaker at all but was just doing the best she could for her friend at the time. HORDR_ROOT’s little cell-phone-screen robot who jumped out of the toilet is the Sensational Character Find of 2015 (!). Yang is really carving out a nice little chunk of the mythos for himself here only three issues in. His characterization imbues the entire cast with a vibrant three-dimensional life that makes them jump off of every page. And of course JRJr. continues to smash shit up with his best Son of Son of Kirby efforts, blood lineage be damned. I keep saying this, and I’m going to say it again down below, but it is so satisfying and delightful to have strong talent working on the titles I care about most.

BEST OF WEEK: JLA #3 — Grar, Hitch continues to be a raging cage-beast of art picture-drawings. I counted Hal punching 44 dudes in that one panel. 44! But of course that’s only scratching the surface. This is nothing less than magnificent. I am obviously loving the hell out of what Johns & Fabok are doing over in the main title, but then Hitch is just dominating over here all by himself. The art is as stunning as ever, but when you take into account that he’s writing this whole deal as well, this really is pushing right up against being some career-best-level type business for the level, which is really saying something. I could do a laundry list of highlights in this issue alone, but that’s so reductive, I’ll just mention that that’s the most spot-on conversation I have seen scripted for Bruce & Clark in quite some time. And of course, the mega-Lantern punch over to the right, here. Massive respect to Hitch for all of this, and of course Henriques/Sinclair are up in the whole deal slinging their own respective fire. Strong strong work and a pleasure to consume.

8/19/15

STAR WARS #8 — Well, I had doubts that any regular crew would be able to follow the Cassaday/Martin greatness to any capable extent whatsoever, but Immonen/von Grawbadger/Ponsor set it on fire. Ponsor, in particular, shows up with some luscious tones when ALL-NEW X-MEN has trained me to be appreciating Gracia over these other guys. The art is terrific throughout. Aaron kind of dicks us around return-of-dead-Starbuck style with the Sana Solo thing, as now after all these weeks of us waiting for cliffhanger follow-up, Han is denying the whole marriage thing, but that of course doesn’t seem like terribly solid intel at the moment. This issue was certainly enjoyable but felt a little bit slighter than the singles in the previous arc, not quite as much happening this time out.

BEST OF WEEK: JUSTICE LEAGUE #43 — Johns/Fabok/Anderson absolutely keep blowing it up. This continues to be the epitome for how you handle a massive event within the pages of what should be the biggest, most important team book that DC produces. Massive set-piece rock’em-sock’em plot set-ups with a couple to several Holy Shit! moments happening per issue but never failing to lose sight of the nuanced beats as these icons supercollide off of one another. Superman & Luthor stranded in Apokolips continues to yield fruitful results. It’s a terrific moment when Luthor’s jaw drops at the sight of blood running down the side of his nemesis’s face, but my favorite beat of the entire issue is when they’re running for their lives from the approaching army and Superman tries to finish Lex’s sentence with the fact that without solar radiation, soon he’ll be “human,” and even then and there with their very survival in question—running for their lives, remember!—Luthor can’t let it slide, has to correct Superman that he’ll only be “powerless, you’ll never be human.” Oh, Luthor. The little girl and I could not stop laughing about this. The contempt and loathing seeping through, such terrific work. And of course you have to love Batman rocking the Mobius chair, which is only beginning to yield strong narrative. Wonder Woman’s Scylla & Charybdis comparison at the end of the issue was maybe a bit forced and held down the momentum of those insane pages, but overall, this issue was a very dynamic and exciting third part of the most engaging storyline this title has had since the reboot. Fabok is destroying it every single panel to the point that you can almost see Jim Lee clutching his temples when the pages come in, freaking out like the rest of us. I've been a fan since first spotting Fabok on a Batman fill-in not that long ago, but the guy has leveled up to a ridiculous extent in a very short amount of time and is really pushing this thing all the way forward, cranking everything up to a breathless pace. Exhilarating work.

ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN #3 — Still killing it! Best issue of this series yet. You have got to love Maya punching out one of Damian’s teeth on one page, soothing Goliath on the next, and then the amazing splash of everybody just chilling out on the page after that. Gleason continues to just script the bejeezus out of this, continuing/honoring the very strong character work Morrison & Tomasi have put into our title character while propelling him headlong into his own solo adventures. And of course, so good to still have the band together. I hope that Gleason/Gray/Alamy/Kalisz are planning to produce this title for a very long time. They are showing no signs of flagging, throwing down greatness every single month like it’s no problem.

BLACK CANARY #3 — Very little dialogue necessary as Wu gives us page after page of Dinah rocking glorious fighting-on-the-roof-of-a-moving-train good times with the tremendous elevated stakes of having to be on-stage in twenty minutes or the band is off the bill! I’m still digging this new conceit of our heroine fronting a rock band on the run, though it does seem the least bit dicey to suddenly retcon her powers as being connected to Ditto? I guess forget about continuity and enjoy the ride. Ha, it’s not like Ollie showed up as her husband, which certainly threw me for more of a loop.

ASTRO CITY #26 — In September 1995, I had just arrived in Austin to attend the University of Texas. I was delighted to be assigned to a dorm down the street from Dobie, this outrageous private dorm I had stayed at a couple of years back that had a two-level shopping mall for its first two floors that, among other wonderful places, contained Funny Papers, a comic book shop. Living just a couple three blocks within walking distance of a comic shop was a dangerous and wonderful situation. The first time I walked in after I moved to town, I immediately spotted a new Alex Ross cover on the rack, which was huge because at that point, all he’d done was MARVELS and I guess that old TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH series that of course nobody cared about. But here is was! A new Image series! By the guys who did MARVELS! Making up their own superhero universe! This was going to be the best thing since 1963! So excited, I reached for it right away and flipped to the first page, something I never do before buying an issue. But I just had to lay my eyes on that first Alex Ross interior! Would it be a splash? Some panels? Surely a splash, right? It was . . . huh. Brent Anderson? The guy who did the X-Men graphic novel from way back? I mean, he’s fine and all but . . . Alex Ross isn’t painting this? I gave a great sigh and put the book back on the rack. Nothing against Mr. Anderson in particular, it was just such a letdown for this not to be the full-on official follow-up to MARVELS. I gave the entire first volume a pass. And the second one, for that matter. Of course, the price of that first issue shot way up as the years went by. I eventually picked it up for like five dollars quite some time later, shaking my head to myself all the while. But this was years later. It wasn’t until THE DARK AGE started that I finally made it into Astro City and realized how short-sighted I’d been about the whole deal, immediately going back and devouring the first two volumes.

All of which to say. It certainly hasn’t been twenty years for me. But I guess it’s been at least ten? More than that, I bet. Busiek/Anderson/Ross do a wonderful job of bringing everything full circle this month by returning all the way back around to where it all began, Samaritan dreaming of flying around through wisps of cloud in his birthday suit. The plot has a nice balance to it in that good old Asa certainly has center stage but the plot of this issue is elastic enough to allow us to check in on a vast majority of the by-this-time seriously extended ensemble, from the Furst family to that new cute little chibi-headed heroine reminding us that the whole deal that got rolling at the top of this volume with the fourth-wall-breakin’ alien ambassador is still simmering, as well as a gang of cameos from several heroes pitching in while Samaritan is out of commission, all resolving in a satisfactory manner by issue’s end, complete with the customary Samaritan-zoom global overview roll call of just what went down that night, how many villains were caught/natural disasters averted/lives saved/etc. The really wonderful thing about this issue is that, while it completely succeeds in revisiting the territory it first traversed 240 long months ago and really barely even scratching the surface of how much work the creators have put in issue after issue, character after character, and really kind of knocking out the reader with the full breadth of the panorama of how much this book actually contains, this one’s not any kind of big event, not substantially better than it ever is every single issue. It’s always this good. And we readers are so so lucky to be able to have had this series for all this time. Here’s to twenty more years.  

SAVAGE DRAGON #206 — Nothing more or less than good savage fun, this time with a graduation thrown in the mix. The bit about Dr. Doom’s origin cracked me up, that was a perfect set-up and punchline, I was very much like, “Hey, isn’t that..?” Solid as a punch thrown by bashful Benjamin J. himself, Larsen shows up with yet another love letter/homage to everything that Kirby showed us makes this medium the most vibrant storytelling engine there is to be found, this month with even more punching!

ARCHIE #2 — I went with the slamming Paul Renaud cover though would have been happy to go home with the Fiona Staples in-mirror shot if that had been on the rack. No surprise, this is another Waid/Staples home run with our title character almost relegated to a supporting role while Betty Cooper takes center stage. Though it is interesting that Veronica does show up on-panel but still without saying a word. And we even get a secret origin of Jughead thrown in for good measure. Waid is juggling the ensemble with all the deft seemingly effortless characterization we expect, packing plenty of wonderful little moments into this without making the pace seem anything other than breezy. And what a last page, that look on her face. We still don’t even know what’s going on, but of course she wants him back. What’s the deal? I don’t care. This book is still perfect. I never would have thought that I could be so pumped about these characters but these creators are knocking it out of the park.

TREES #12 — I’m digging this volume a little bit more than the last one, God rest poor Chenglei’s soul. The mayor is hitting me as a relatable and fun sort of fuckup, and I find myself rooting for him while he’s blundering around on the way to the next mess. Ellis is creeping the overall deal with the poppies forward ever so slowly, but the glacial pace is working. We care about these characters not the damn Trees. Though What The Hell Is With The Trees, Anyway? Howard remains the engine propelling all of this loveliness forward. And what in God’s name is on this cover anyway? Some sort of black poppy priest? Horrifying.

ISLAND #2 — The Roy story was definitely good but doesn’t manage to do quite the amount of heavy lifting that Brother Graham managed last time. As if anything can, I guess. Ludroe comes back to really stick the landing on his “Dagger Proof Mummy.” I had no problem with the first part, but the finale cranked it up for me quite a bit. Also, it’s nice to see one story come to a close as another begins, lending a fluidity to the collection that’s preferable to everything being a series of five-part stories that all begin in the first issue and end in the fifth. The plot of Rios’s “I.D.” is happening, and of course she can draw the hell out of anything, but the red monotone was working for me even less this time out, probably due in no small part to it being the headliner, so instead of opening up with this and then expanding our filters to all the madness of Graham, we end the collection by dialing our color spectrum almost all the way down to red red white and that other lighter shade of red. Would I feel the same way if it was in that sweet CASANOVA Volume 2 Moon-blue? I kind of think maybe not? At any rate, bless Miz Rios and Brother Graham, the both of them, for putting out such an original and varied anthology where quality creators can find a home for their work to find fresh eyes that might never have bumped up into them otherwise.

8/12/15

BEST OF WEEK, OBVS: PHONOGRAM: THE IMMATERIAL GIRL #1 — Ah. There you are, darling. At long last. For the past five years, I’ve hollered about to anyone who’d listen how important the second volume of PHONOGRAM was, not as much in a context-free vacuum but specifically to me at that moment in my life, one year into being a stay-at-home dad and closer to the precipice than I had realized to growing not up but away from the person I had been, drifting toward a different state of being not by choice but circumstance, and it was these singles telling the stories of seven phonomancers on one night that happened to be the day after my daughter’s negative-second birthday that snapped me back into their jaws and whipped me around and shook me and reminded me who I had been and how important it was to never let that go, all while inundating me with all of this perfect pop music that I had never even heard of. Of course I knew some of the Britpop, Blur, Elastica, Oasis, and the like, but I’d never heard of the Manics or Kenickie or The blessed Pipettes or The Long Blondes, and I had lived my whole life without “River Deep Mountain High.” And somehow “Hey Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” was the theme song that encapsulated the aching heartsick fleeting sensation of how all of this could only feel new for a little while before it would stop remaking and reminding me and just become part of what I had always been and not realized quite yet. This series, that volume in particular, THE SINGLES CLUB, has had more of an impact on me than most of the hundreds and hundreds of comics that I have devoured in my time, but I can’t recommend it to just anyone or really anyone at all and expect a similar result. It was a thing of its time, a convergence unique only to me. I’m sure several others (with that unfortunate 4K ceiling, natch) could report similar circumstances, but there you are.

All of which to say, that this volume even exists is a source of great joy to me before even cracking it open. Of course, it has so much to live up to. And I am certainly not the person I was those years ago. Similar in many ways, but my little girl is now beginning first grade. I have three jobs and just got hired for a fourth and know damn well all the who I ams that there are, I just need the time to actualize them to their full potential. And so we come, at last, to the story of Emily Aster, who has been near the front since the beginning but only ever taken center stage for that third issue last time out. And of course, since then, Gillen/McKelvie/Wilson have given us the glorious run of YOUNG AVENGERS before unleashing THE WICKED + THE DIVINE upon the world to fairly resounding acclaim. I couldn’t wait for us all to get back together again and have a look at one another. Once it was time to read the new books, though, I realized that I should have a run through the old batch and reached for Penny’s initial romp through Volume 2 before realizing that I would be doing Kohl and the whole enterprise a disservice if I didn’t run all the way through. Sooooooo, a couple of hours and several Lone Stars and thirteen issues of PHONOGRAM later, I was finally ready to return to London. And a good thing I read back through, I remembered most of the high points of Volume 1 but couldn’t remember The Myth for shit. And who could be ready for young Seth? Not I, certainly. Oh oh, and somehow, through all of my previous love, I had somehow managed never to spin Dexy’s “Plan B,” and so was riveted by that even before it turned out to be the title of this very latest first installment. You see?!? All for me! My favorite part, though, was them dropping the URL address right at the bottom of Page Twelve. I dutifully stopped reading and immediately watched Poly Sterene’s “Ghoulish” on my iPad, completely riveted before I found out the entire posthumous context. And that’s even before Gillen’s wonderful inversion on “Take On Me” by having a girl from this sequential world fall directly into the goddamn A-ha video with McKelvie of course knocking the style out like he’s been practicing it since the day he was born, which I suspect is around the time this video was first released. I was laughing and crying and the entire wretched mess was really the best and worst possible way to begin another Wednesday Night Mass.

DESCENDER #6 — In terms of narrative flow, it’s a somewhat strange call to tuck IN the secret origin of Dr. Quon here at the back end of the arc just because you really typically don’t want to end on backstory, but Lemire/Nguyen have, in just a very few issues, already crafted such a rich and compelling mythology that of course we gulp all that backstory exposition down and ask for seconds before they do indeed drop the hammer in such a way that has to have anyone with a heart, mechanical or otherwise gnashing teeth and shaking fists over this damned two-month hiatus. Lemire has done solid to excellent work-for-hire material since ESSEX COUNTY, but this is the sweet stuff, the mother lode, the SWEET TOOTH, TRILLIUM mainline business right here. I have made no secret of loving it since the first issue, but if you’ve been reading along at home and for some reason ignoring my love (which happens in just all kinds of contexts, I’m sad to report), then for the sake of all you hold dear, pick up this first trade for $9.99 next month.

INJECTION #4 — This is another one that fills in the blanks better than the first two issues, and it’s pretty interesting. Ellis is doling out an intriguing narrative that engages on its own terms, and Shalvey/Bellaire continue to throw down sequential dynamite at every turn. Worth it for the Kilbride montage alone, even if you already saw that panel about the TED talk ten times on the Internet before this issue ever came out (which I was kind of sorry about once I finally read this thing; I would have laughed my ass off at that and kind of fallen in love with what’s-his-name in context if that had been the first time). I’m digging this one just a little bit more than TREES, if anybody’s making us play the Which Is Better? game (and if they are, Thor beats Hulk in the final round every time, you guys, so there).

SECRET WARS #5 — I think everyone’ s so so damn event-jaded (and fair play if they are, it’s been a rough decade), but the elegance and greatness of this event is just not something that’s getting talked about enough. I wish this could have been a years’ worth of double-published FF/AVENGERS stories. I want 36 issues of the father/daughter relationship between Doom & Valeria, arguably the most compelling introduction that Hickman made into the mythos that he barely even had time to scratch the surface of before moving on, but that that shot of her as a teenager donning the Doom armor in a montage in S.H.I.E.L.D. vol. 2 #4 accelerates to eye-popping terminal velocity just in one panel. Doom’s line about her not confusing undying love and eternal patience while just addressing her as “child” was aching perfection, the only way to follow up having him quote Gaiman re: the high cost of living. And then back at the top, you’ve got to love the straight-faced dogmatic nonsense of Strange’s eulogy’s narrative involving Doom and the departed as the only witnesses to creation itself. Hickman gives Owen Reece a voice closer to Klaw in the original version of this with the repeated lines and what not, but I’m thinking that’s more of an intentional homage. This was very much a reset issue after the out-of-control madness of #4, more of a full-stop than I expected, but the concepts are so big, the ideas so massive that it’s terribly compelling just to follow these people around watching them trying to figure out what’s happening. We’re going to need a massive crank-up here in the homestretch to reach this set-up’s exponential potential, but the creators are certainly up to the task that they have set for themselves. If I didn’t love PHONOGRAM so much, this would be my Best of Week. Everybody, quitcher bitchin’.

A-FORCE #3 — It’s still so good! Our heroines are on the ropes as Baroness She-Hulk runs afoul of some Thors and one of their number pays the ultimate price. Even though we’ve barely seen this version of these characters interact, the death scene played with all the appropriate gravitas, in large part due to Molina’s splash-page staging. We’re all just expecting greatness at this point, and Bennet/Wilson/Molina certainly keep delivering.

GOTHAM ACADEMY #8 — This detective club is really coming together. The Kerschl cover says it all. This remains one of DC’s most exciting and flat-out fun books. There are several fun references packed in here, from Olive missing acting in Mr. Trent’s House of Secrets play to Maps quoting Faith’s “Five by Five” to Pomeline dropping a “nerf herder,” but my favorite was Lillards throwing down a Clue reference after tranking Coach Humphreys. And of course Olive’s mom used to be a pyrokinetic supervillain. This series has it all.

ACTION COMICS #43 — Pak/Kuder continue bringing the justice with the ballad of the depowered Superman of the people. They have really done fine work stripping the character all the way past even his wacky Silver Age trappings down to the core of the character, an inspiration to the world, sure, but just to his neighborhood, first and foremost. I love how they’ve zoomed all the way in to that. The “You’re all Superman now.” moment played with as much depth and raw power as it deserved to. Well done, all.

BATMAN #43 — All right, well, that’s a pretty great reason to bring Bruce back already. What an interesting wrinkle in the whole deal. I questioned but never doubted him for an instant, well done, Snyder. Our guy has just been erased and now he’s been purged of everything that makes him Batman. Fascinating. Capullo & Plascencia close in on the end of their fourth year of absolutely putting it down with Miki along for most of the ride. And Bat-Robot-Gordon remains a compelling permutation. You almost don’t even need rogues, even, new or old!

STARFIRE #3 — No letdown here, Conner/Palmiotti/Lupacchino continue to craft an excellent book that redeems the character from all of her mishandling since the reboot. The script zings along, featuring only one character we’ve ever met outside these pages, and the art remains as stunning as the effect that our protagonist seems to have on at least every background character. And now we’ve got Power Girl’s cousin or something in the mix? Terrific fun.

BOMBSHELLS #1 — This series sounded like a slam-dunk as soon as it was announced, and that was before I figured out that A-FORCE co-writer Bennett was scripting. It is indeed terrific. It takes its time. With the exception of the cover, our heroines have yet to meet, as we get to know them in three distinct chapters. It’s interesting to see the level of modification. This is basically just a straight-up Golden Age version of Diana while Batwoman’s taking her name a bit literally while riffing on the old Rosie the Riveteer deal, and Kara is pulling a straight RED SON. It all work, though. The art by Sauvage recalls the lines of Paquette and colors of Lotay, fine company to be in to be sure, particularly in this context. It looks like DC’s got another brand-new hit on their hands, and I couldn’t be happier.

VELVET: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE WORLD #11 — Brubaker/Epting/Breitweiser bring us the first installment of the new arc. This one takes its time, content to simmer along at its own pace. The art continues to stun. It’s been ten years since Brubaker & Epting first got together with that Captain America run that stunned everybody, and the quality and depth of their collaboration has clearly been enriched by the intervening years. Brubaker is clearly having a blast crafting his very own espionage yarn and the art is just like its protagonist, stunning and it doesn’t put up with bullshit of any kind.

EMPIRE: UPRISING #4 — We check in with Minister Valpurgis, who it turns out is conspiring against our villain protagonist, old Golgoth. And our planet’s salvation might arrive in the form of space aliens! I confess that I haven’t gone back to the first volume after all of these years and so was a bit sketchy on the particulars of the guy who just showed back up, but Waid made it all clear enough so that I wasn’t super-confused. More terrific work from Kitson, clean lines throughout. This volume is beginning to pick up the narrative pace, to be certain.

ODY-C #6 — Jesus, there were a lot of damn books this week. We haven’t even made it to the Moore/Morrison showdown. Here though, we’re checking in with Ene’s ship and specifically the great bull of Troiia, “He of the cock that once launched in his honor some ten thousand swiftships,” Fraction folds in a couple of layers of storytelling 1,001-Arabian-Nights-style and gives us a terribly engaging done-in-one that manages to not even check in with our spanning ensemble. Ward’s first all-digital issue is a wonder to behold with a palette that is unlike any upon which I have ever laid eyes. If you’re curious about this series but hesitant to just jump in, this is the one that will let you know what you’re getting into without ruining the first five issues for you in any way.

PROVIDENCE #3 — All right, I don’t know. I am one of those who argues that THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN has gotten successively better along the way. Yes, counting THE BLACK DOSSIER and all of that apeshit lightning-dick CENTURY business before finally leveling off (relatively speaking) and calming down with Ms. Janni Nemo here most recently. I also found some merit in the soul-crushing horror of NEONOMICON. All of this to say, to all those who have scoffed at Mr. Moore’s output of the past decade or so, I have only scoffed in turn. But three issues in, this one’s leaving me cold. I’m having trouble dialing in. The craft is certainly apparent. It’s probably the best work of Jacen Burrows’s career with well-crafted composition and camera motion throughout the issue that would make Dave Gibbons nod along in paternal approval and careful linework leading to understated acting throughout the panels. And the script is certainly fully realized. Moore doesn’t ever do anything half-hearted. I just don’t care about this guy and thus far haven’t been given even the seed of a reason to begin to. I didn’t even bother wading through the backmatter this time around just because it hasn’t really lent much to the overall narrative thus far. The character’s a bit overly simpering for my taste, perhaps? I don’t know. I’m a little disturbed just because I’m always going to find something to respect about Moore’s work, he’s too much of a master craftsman for that not to be the case, but this is the first time that I haven’t really cared for the story he has chosen to tell.

GRANT MORRISON’S 18 DAYS #2 — Morrison infuses the single scene of King Yudish crossing enemy lines to receive a blessing from his enemies with no small amount of character development for members of both factions. This goes a great length toward heightening the suspense and drama that was already in place from the first issue, and of course, the battle has yet to begin. While Yudish is apparently just like the best, most noble warrior ever, Morrison wisely makes the characters Drona and particularly Bheemsha of the magnificent laugh very likeable so that even though Duryodhana is very much cast as the bad guy in this conflict, those who serve with him occupy more ambiguous territory. Kang once again turns in art that is dynamic and exciting wherein simply a small group of men crossing the lines of a battlefield is imbued with majesty and grandeur. Not that much happens in this issue, but it’s carried off with such craft and character precision that it’s all terribly engrossing and I can’t wait for the next issue. 

8/05/15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7/29/15

SUPERMAN #42 — The Jorge Corona variant cover of this issue is just the greatest. You want an entire cartoon show that looks just like this. But we’re stuck with the greatness of Yang/JRJr./Janson/White giving us only the second part of their Secret Identity No More! arc, featuring Lois actually ripping our boy’s shirt off, knowing what she’ll find underneath but still pretty shocked about the whole deal. I dig the idea that information is the new currency of the twenty-first century, the prize that must be safeguarded the most. Maybe Clark tells Lois to publish as the only option to defeat these HORDR folk? And I’m sorry, but was anybody else reading “Hodor” instead of this new crew’s actual name? Some unintentional humor that is welcome nonetheless. Still so grateful that both Superman titles are now this terrific and unmissable. That’s how it should always be.

BATGIRL #42 — What is not to love about our Babs teaming up with her Bat-Gordon daddy with him having no idea what’s going on? I mean, though, really? No idea? You’d think he’d start to pick up on it now at least, if he hadn’t sussed to the truth already. Maybe this is one of those Aunt May things where he’s known all this time and just respected her privacy and not made a thing about it? It doesn’t matter. Tarr is as on-point as ever, this time with breakdowns by a couple fellas I’ve never heard of, Wyatt & Lacombe, and colors by Lapointe, but everything looks terrific. The fights scenes are dynamic and there are a couple of tight shots of our cowled heroine that are so iconic-looking, you wonder if they’re posters that you’ve seen already. More strong work from one of DC’s best.

BATGIRL ANNUAL #3 — This is magnificent. Anyone considering skipping this maybe (because the regular series came out the same day and that will get you your fix just fine, and Babs Tarr isn’t even on art anyway, so) is doing him- or herself a serious disservice. This is a 36-page tale too big to be contained in a regular-sized issue or even by a single artist. Bengal, LaFuente, Doyle, and Chen (hey, there are two Mings providing art duties on this book; that is not something you see every day. Go, Mings!) all bring their own respective thunder and actually mesh pretty well, so that it isn’t too jarring as the tale segues from one artist/guest star to the next. The cover only reveals that Grayson is in the mix and so I won’t go in any further, but let’s just say that anyone who is a fan of Fletcher’s other books in the pocket Fletcherverse really really needs to hang out until the last scene. I was so happy. Cut my eyes out, but as much as I really love Tarr’s art, this might very well have been the most satisfying done-in-one from this Burnside reconfiguration yet. Terrific fun.

STAR WARS #7 — What a great idea for fill-in stopgaps in between arcs. You just go to the journal of Old Ben. Bianchi/Ponsor show up with terrific art that maintains the ridiculous quality level set by Cassaday/Martin while Aaron provides the MacGregor-narrated captions of a Jedi whose greatest challenge is accepting willful inaction. Of course, if nothing happened, that would make for a terribly boring twenty pages, so there have got to be thugs representing old Jabba, and also a certain willful boy with a greater destiny than even he can imagine. It seems as though scripting the action for this period is an even tougher insertion than the challenges poised by sliding anything worthwhile in between IV and V. I mean, the status quo can’t change. No matter what, Ben has to wind up in that hut on the Dune Sea and Luke has to grow up ignorant of his heritage. Aaron does a nice job here crafting how a spot of in-character willfulness on the boy’s part is responsible for galvanizing his silent guardian at a time when he was at his lowest. All that and a couple of callbacks to fading away and binary suns, only one of which made me wince. This was a solid throttle-down from the main action, but I’m certainly ready to crank it back up again next month with the sickness of Immonen and whatever the deal is behind a certain Miz Solo, hey?

DAREDEVIL #17 — I’m running out of great things to say about this title. Waid/Samnee/Wilson continue to deliver Murdock glory and perfection, now only amplified by the long-awaited appearance of our hero’s arch-nemesis. How is Matt going to get out of THIS one?!?

THORS #2 — This was the first issue tie-in that I enjoyed the most, and Aaron keeps up the fun, doubling down in the opening scene with Odin delivering a crushing eulogy for a fallen Thor that is as worthy a remembrance as any warrior might ever hope for. After enjoying the art so much on #1, I was a little disappointed to see that Sprouse already needed a fill-in, though Sudzuka is definitely going to get it done for you. The back half of this one almost wanders into continuity sludge after the strong implication that the main Thor, the guy they’re calling unworthy now who’s the one who starred in those hundreds of issues Marvel comics put out since the early sixties, it looks like this guy might also remember the pre-Battleworld status quo from the way he’s talking. And of course, an old friend has to show up by the end. There had been so much else going on that I honestly hadn’t missed him yet. Storm Thor & Destroyer Thor probably deserve their own spinoff book.

SOUTHERN BASTARDS #10 — So, we’re just going to jump around for a bunch of one-shot –centrics, it looks like. That’s a pretty economical way to get to know some other folks better, zooming in this time on our most repugnant fella yet, that old Esaw Goings. We don’t really gain too much empathy for the boy, as was the case with Coach Boss’s surprising second arc, but you’ve got to at least respect his consistency. The repeated internal monologue bursts were great fun. You know what, though, Jason Latour’s essay at the end of this issue on the need to take down Ol’ Glory was as cogent and intelligent an analysis of a prickly issue that I have seen, paying respect to any calls for heritage while never losing sight of the truth that the image is inextricably linked to the centuries-long oppression of a race and forever will be. Kind of like old Esaw, only the exact opposite, pretty much.

BEST OF WEEK: TRANSFORMERS VS. G.I. JOE #8 — Not that Sciloi has been fucking around for a single page of this, but this issue he manages to rocket it up to an even more ridiculous and gloriously over-the-top level. Snake-Eyes Cobra Last Summer homage giving way to young Billy Commander getting just ripped apart by the Snake God. Omega Supreme’s transformation from highway and casual destroyer of Decepticobras into a rocket ship spiriting the upper echelon of Joes away to Cybertron is ingenious. And only takes three pages! There’s a wonderful madness to the way that Scioli hyper-compresses so much action and thought into every single page. Every one of these issues really could be a fantastic 48-page special without sacrificing the breakneck pace, but there’s something magical about the degree to which this series has been racing along red-lined pedal-on-the-floor since the beginning. The two double-page splashes of Optimus Prime VS. Megatron are, of course, for the ages. And what a finale, The Boom Beyond Booms, a magnificent homage to #21. Surely NOT The End.

THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS: THE SUN BEYOND THE STARS #2 — Narrowing the focus down to just Yuri & Laika remains a good idea, as the pair get a little bit of elbow-room to stretch out into their own adventures. Pitarra continues to refine his style past his strong Quitely/Darrow roots and on into something more uniquely his own. And it looks like the interstellar hijinx are only beginning, with Laika of course being the most intelligent individual by a significant margin.

GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #10 — And so Ryan Browne brings the blistering madness not to a close but actually careening off a cliff into the existential terror of infinite white space! Not my little friend! Browne manages to crank up the art on this one, his rendering ability matched only by his apparent frothing madness. Here, we find Dr. Doom remixed with a Metron design! The most horrifying Environmints ad of all time! Worlds colliding! And blessed news from the 3-D household! This one has it all, folks!

LOW #8 — Respect to Remender/Tocchini/McCaig. After burning through just seven issues, while maintaining the long-term motivation of this adventure, this dramatic shift in dynamic after the first arc results in what feels like the creation of almost a different book. A tighter and more intimate one, at least in this first installment. The art remains knockdown drag-out stellar, but it’s the character work that really makes this one sing. Between this and BLACK SCIENCE (and shit, that DEADLY CLASS has still gotten by me, I’m just realizing), you can totally see why Remender has bailed on the corporate situation, and good on him. Everyone who cares about supporting creator-owned books has no excuse in the world not to be picking this one up.

SEX CRIMINALS #11 — It’s Fraction Time! Git me All the Matt Stat with an extra-long side of Chipper. I think that was supposed to be extra-large, but this book works its own magic. I didn’t get any special Scott Pilgrim XXX perversion variants, which I totally wouldn’t have minded learning in the comfort of my own living room, but the nice lady behind the counter at my friendly neighborhood LCS asked me to go ahead and open mine so that she could take a picture of me and the Pilgrim dick or whatever it was if I was a lucky winner, and when I saw that I got just the regular cover, I felt like I let all my friends down and also even the strangers who were watching me not succeed. This issue, though. These guys continue to do fine work fleshing out the supporting cast and packing all the gags into the background that good Chipper can manage. The double-shot of the Golden Years Retirement Home (“mmbop-bop!”) followed by the cat advising the residents to “Hang in There, Baby!” had me so tickled, it should be more illegal than whatever Pilgrim dick managed to elude me. I enjoyed the four black panels encouraging us to imagine all the insanity that Chipper would have provided and am sure that there’s a really funny Asian language gag on Page 5, panel 5 but haven’t managed to figure it out thus far. Don’t worry, there are only forty more Asian languages to try! At any rate, if you haven’t told all your friends about this one yet, you should really go ahead and pull the trigger on that one. Lots of fun to talk about at parties, especially after everybody’s had that fourth or fifth shot and/or beer.

CASANOVA: ACEDIA #3 — I have got to tell you that without rereading everything that has come before (or at least the past two issues and the previous volume, say), I have very little idea what is going on right now. I mean, I get that Bro has forgotten who he is and I remember that from the first two issues, but in terms of issue to issue, this is a bit of a head-scratcher without the old reread after a couple of months off. Hell if it doesn’t look magnificent, though! These might be Peter’s best colors over Brother Moon’s work thus far. I recognized Sasa at least? And at last our hero remembers who he is, even if he hasn’t quite accessed his secret extra-dimensional agent skill set of badassery quite yet. And it is always a delight to tune in to the action band attack of Chabon/Bá metanaut T.A.M.U. glory, though I hope that we get more than three pages next issue. Hey wait, last volume was only like three issues long, seems like, but maybe they were double-sized? I need to figure out what’s going on with all of that. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.