Best Comic of the Week:
Moon Knight #6 – 
Unfortunately, this issue is the last of the run by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey that has been getting so much praise. They’ve done a wonderful job of taking an oddball character that nobody has been successful with in decades, and by embracing his weirdest elements, giving us a unique take on the character. In this issue, a background police officer who we would have met in the first issue decides that he would like to replace Moon Knight, and so goes about training himself to kill him and take his place as the new Black Spectre. MK barely appears in this issue, but for the first time, Ellis brings back some of his old companions, Marlene and Jean-Paul, who are clearly not interested in being part of that world anymore. This has been a great run – a masterclass in the done-in-one story, and a visual wonder – and I’m a little trepidatious about just how Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood are going to do in comparison. I don’t know how long the Ellisian approach to this series would have stayed satisfactory without some clear subplots, but at the same time, I predict that this is a run that is going to be treasured and remembered for a long time to come, which is not something that can be said about a lot of corporate comics.
Quick Takes:
Alex + Ada #8 – Now that Ada has been ‘woken up’, gaining sentience and agency in her own existence, her relationship with Alex is of course going to be strained. Ada wants to explore her new life, but with government crackdowns happening, and his own fear of a committed relationship, Alex is kind of frozen in place. Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn are putting together a nice twist on the traditional romance comic, while also asking important questions about what makes a person a person.
The Bunker #5 – So, if somebody goes back in time to warn his younger self to do things differently, would that act alone change the future? This, and other questions, are left to Now Grady, Future Grady, and their friends to ponder over take-out Thai food as they all reel from the events of the first four issues. Grady has another surprise, in that he’s not alone in the present, and that doesn’t look like a good thing, based on how this issue ends. I really like the way Joshua Hale Fialkov has structured this series, which touches on issues of environmental collapse, overpopulation, food scarcity, and privilege, while still telling a very gripping story.
Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #1 – I entered into this new Joe Casey-driven exploration of an old Jack Kirby property with some trepidation. While fully recognizing the enormity of Kirby’s contribution to the comics medium, I’ve only rarely enjoyed reading his actual comics, especially his later ones, such as the original Captain Victory books, which, as a kid, I found kind of cheesy. Casey is the guy to do Kirby homages, but I got a little tired of Gødland before it finished, and was a little worried that this title would be more of the same overblown bombast. Then I saw the artists attached to the title – Nathan Fox, Jim Rugg, and Ulises Farinas for this issue – and realized I couldn’t pass the book up. Casey doesn’t waste a lot of time introducing the characters or the situation, showing us a pitched battle between somebody and Victory’s ship. When Victory is killed in the battle, his consciousness downloads into a new clone body aboard the ship (which is a normal thing, we learn), and then ejected out of the ship (which is not normal at all). It turns up on Earth in pre-Giuliani New York, while a second body is sent to some other place. Really, when a book looks this good, the story becomes secondary. Fox draws the lion’s share of the issue, and gives us a pretty rough and chaotic introduction to this new world. I’m intrigued enough to add this to my pull file list, and look forward to seeing how the upcoming artists (like Michel Fiffe) work on this title.
Grayson #2 – I liked the first issue of Grayson, and was interested enough in the new direction of this character to give the second issue a try, but this one was a little more disappointing. I felt like the writers, Tim Seeley and Tom King, have decided to just string together a bunch of scenes and ideas they think are cool, instead of taking the time to actually structure this series and develop their concepts. Dick and Helena are sent to retrieve a mechanical stomach which a woman has installed in herself, which has turned her into a cannibal because she’s always ravenous. Strangely, she only seems to eat secret agents (from places like ARGUS and Checkmate), but is perfectly capable of spending a night at the pub with her neighbours without feeling the need to munch on them. While this is all going on, we find out that Midnighter is looking into Grayson’s identity, with the help of the God Garden, but I have no idea what that is. Mr. Minos, the person in charge of Spyral, has to be the most annoying character in this book, as he keeps making pronouncements about how cool he is (“Very 60s Fleming,” for an example) that serve only to underscore how much of this book is going for style over substance. Much of the dialogue between Dick and Helena is similarly self-consciously hipster, and it doesn’t fit well with what’s going on in the book. I still see a lot of potential in this title, and would likely come back for a third issue, but next month DC is doing their five year jump to Futures End, and that’s the best way I can think of to kill any remaining enthusiasm I have for this title. I’ll see if I can remember to check the book out again in October, but the prospects aren’t good.
Green Arrow #34 – I know that they have one issue left together, but that’s next month’s Five Years Later, Futures End, 3D cover nonsense, so I’m reading this as Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s last issue of Green Arrow. Since they’ve taken over the book, they made me like a character I don’t usually care that much about, and more importantly, have filled the book with a very likeable supporting cast. I’m not sure how I feel about the character of Diggle being brought over to the title from the TV show, but Emiko has been a solid addition (and a good replacement for Damian Wayne in the area of snarky sidekick). Most importantly, Lemire and Sorrentino have consistently made this book an exciting and beautiful read, as Sorrentino has played around with layout, and crafted some of the best covers of the last couple of years. This issue finishes off Ollie’s confrontation with Richard Dragon and his squad, and finishes off a number of plotlines that Lemire has introduced. I may pick up next month’s issue (for the art, mainly, because I have no interest in Futures End), but I’m not likely to come back to this book for the new creative team. I’ve watched most of the episodes of the Arrow show, and aside from the overly stiff lead, have found some things to enjoy about it, but I am not that interested or invested enough in this character to see the two worlds merge more (the new writers work on the show). I appreciate that DC left Lemire alone to write this story without too much interference (aside from the usual September nonsense). I’ll look back on this run fondly, and hope that Sorrentino is going to be working with a writer I like again soon.
Harbinger: Omegas #1 – Joshua Dysart picks up right where he left off a couple of weeks ago, with Toyo Harada making his move onto the world stage, and Peter Stanchek hanging around feeling sorry for himself. There are a lot of parallels between this first issue and how I remember the first issue of the regular Harbinger series going; the characters are more or less back in the same places they were, only the stakes have gotten a lot bigger. I’ve loved Dysart’s work on this book from the beginning, and so am excited to see where this all leads.
Hinterkind #10 – This series just keeps improving, as fascist vampires attack the farmhouse where Prosper has been staying, and as the Sidhe queen’s children make their move on her. There was a time where I was ready to drop this title, back when it was all set in an underground military base, but I’m glad I stuck around. I think that writer Ian Edginton had to work out a few kinks, but now he’s got things going just right.
Imperial #1 – It’s been a while since Steven T. Seagle has had a series out, so I was excited to check out the first issue of Imperial, his new Image comic with Mark Dos Santos. In this world, Imperial is a Superman-like hero, who tracks down Mark McDonnell, a pretty average guy (of perhaps below average intelligence) whose father just died, and who is planning his wedding to the girl of his dreams. Imperial tells him that he has chosen him to be his successor, but Mark can’t quite piece together what he’s saying, especially since Imperial speaks in Stan Lee-ish dialogue. The set up for this series is amusing. Mark is reluctant to tell his girl about what’s happening, but Imperial keeps showing up and taking him flying or trying to train him, but by the end of the issue, when Imperial almost crashes into her car, it looks like he won’t be able to keep things secret for long. This is a fun, light-hearted book that reminds me a little of the earliest days of Invincible. Dos Santos is a talented artist whose work brings to mind both Cory Walker and Mike McKone. I’m going to stick with this one.
Invincible #113 – So Robot is trying to take over the whole world, and has started by taking out as many heroes as he can find. The problem is, at some point, he’ll have to deal with the Viltrumites, the incredibly powerful aliens who have claimed the Earth for their own and are living in secret upon it. Mark and Eve meet their daughter, Brit and a few others escape Robot, and Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley keep a pretty good pace going throughout the issue. This is always a great read, full of characters I’ve come to care about.
Lazarus #10 – We’ve gotten a good handle on how things work in Forever Carlyle’s part of the world, but in this done-in-one issue that follows her brother Jonah through his defection to Hock territory, we get a pretty surprising look at how things are in another part of the United States. It’s been easy to dislike the Carlyles so far, but now seeing how things work with Hock, where people are apparently kept medicated all the time, the Carlyles don’t look so bad. A very interesting comic by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, which helps to set up the next story arc.
Miles Morales the Ultimate Spider-Man #4 – Miles is fighting Norman Osborn on Peter Parker’s lawn for most of this issue, when Peter (or his clone – that hasn’t been established yet) shows up to help out, exposing his existence to the world. I much prefer the quieter issues of this series to the action-filled ones, because Brian Michael Bendis has such a better handle on these characters than he does anyone else in the Marvel Universe, but it’s great to see artist David Marquez go wild with an issue like this.
New Avengers #22 – Despite it’s only having been a week since the last issue of New Avengers came out, we are still in the desert watching the aftermath of last issue’s big ending play out. I really like the way Jonathan Hickman writes the Black Panther, who goes off on Namor in a scene that is the culmination of events that started back in Avengers Vs. X-Men. The entire group of heroes who form the cast of this book are pretty lost right now, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they choose to handle future incursions. Kev Walker comes over from Avengers Underground to draw this issue, and his art, while looking a little less rough than what I’m used to from him, looks great.
The Sixth Gun: Days of the Dead #1 – I love the regular Sixth Gun series, so picking up this new prequel mini-series was a no-brainer, despite my dislike of prequels. Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt are writing the story, and the series is being drawn by the wonderful Mike Norton (who is also drawing Revival at the same time – is such a thing possible?). It looks at the Sword of Abraham and the Knights of Solomon, secret societies that have long played important roles in this universe. Wisely, they aren’t looking for the Six, but are instead getting involved in an odd set of circumstances that involve a mystical amulet of some sort, and a necromancer who may be a Mayan death god. It’s definitely got me interested.
The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #14 – I really have no idea what’s going on with my favourite Marvel title, and the constant “is it or is it not cancelled” of its Previews solicitations (which, I would think, would put off new readers rather than attract them). This issue is terrific, as we learn all about what the Beetle and Overdrive were doing between issues a little while back over a couple of hilarious scenes, and the gang finally figure out that Shocker is not dead, since they are hiding out in the same safe house as he is. Brilliant work all around from Nick Spencer, Steve Lieber, and Rich Ellis in this issue. I hope people are picking up the first trade in droves, because I don’t remember the last time a Marvel series was this delightful (okay, Hawkeye was, but that title has not kept it up as well as this one).
Swamp Thing #34 – Charles Soule wraps up the long-running plot concerning The Wolf and the Lady Weeds, the two former avatars that Swamp Thing has brought out of the Green. The end of the issue feels a little rushed, which I assume is a function of the fact that next month’s issue has to be given over to the Futures End nonsense. I’m curious to see where Soule is planning on taking this book next, because I feel like his Swamp Thing is one of the more unique takes on the character that I’ve seen in a very long time.
The Woods #4 – James Tynion and Michael Dialynas’s series about a high school that’s been transported to a strange world continues to be very entertaining. Some of the students have found what looks like a Mayan temple in the woods, and when they enter it, there is evidence that other humans have been to this place before. Some of the other students encounter some of the residents of the woods, while back at the school, the Coach continues to act like a good little fascist. I’ve really liked the strength of the characterizations in this book, with the exception of the adult characters, who are too often played like the buffoonish teachers of teen comedy movies.
Comics I Would Have Bought if They Weren’t $4 (or More):
Black Widow #9
Detective Comics #34
Legendary Star-Lord #2
Miracleman #9
New Warriors #8
Original Sin #3.4
Original Sin #5.3
Punisher #9
Rachel Rising #27
Superior Spider-Man #32
Uber #16
Bargain Comics:
The Auteur #3 – Rick Spears’s comic about a degenerate movie producer who hires a serial killer to add veracity to the proceedings is fun in a gross-out kind of way. This issue has a lot of boobs, if that is a reason to read it for you…
Avengers AI #10-12 – The least heralded Avengers series of the last decade of Avengers-prominence ends, but if nobody is there to read it, has the story really finished? Sam Humphries was given a lot of freedom with this book about artificially intelligent Avengers, but the story never really clicked. The series took twelve issues to address the threat of Dimitrios, an evil AI in Iron Man armor, and following a current trend, the series had to jump thousands of years into the future to reach any kind of conclusion. There is a lot of squandered potential in this series, but I did really like the art by André Lima Araújo, and expect to see him showing up in more prominent places soon.
Batman #29&30 – I gave up on Batman a little while ago, because I felt that Zero Year was taking way too long, and too many issues were showing an increase in price. These comics read better in small chunks like this, as Scott Snyder continues to slowly work his way through this long, strange story. Batman tries to stop the Riddler from wrecking Gotham, fails, spends a few months sleeping on some young boy’s bedroom floor, and then goes about trying to fix things again. The power outages appear spotty, Batman’s wearing purple gloves, and a guy with uncontrollable bone growth is guarding a weather balloon during a massive hurricane. It’s all very exciting, but nothing here stands up to a second thought.
Fables #138&139 – Every time I pick up a couple issues of Fables, I’m just reminded of how finished this series really is. It’s been a long time since it’s felt like Bill Willingham had much of a plan for this comic, and these two issues underscore that. In the first, Gepetto schemes. In the second, Danny Boy shows up and convinces his old friend to come back to the Homelands with him, because of some sort of evil somebody, and the whole band goes with them. It’s all been done before.
Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #5&6 – These two issues make up the Bride of Blood story in Alex De Campi’s homage to cheesy B-movies. A young girl is promised in marriage to a local lord, but on her wedding day, Reavers attack, raping and killing everyone they can. The lord escapes, and the young girl survives, only to come back later for her revenge. It’s all pretty predictable, but that’s kind of the point in a story like this. Francesca Manfredi’s art is quite lovely, taking the material into account.
Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #7&8 – These two issues contain the Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll, a story which really feels like it is the culmination of what Alex De Campi was aiming for when she started this series. This story features a teenage girls’ field hockey team (who enjoy having topless pie fights), Satanists from the Pilgrims’ day, truckers, a demon girl, and a fair amount of sexual conversation. It’s a very funny story that is at all times conscious of its genre and where the limits are (apparently anal doesn’t count when virgin sacrifices are needed). Gary Erskine drew this, and I’m used to him making everybody look kind of old and haggard, but that’s not the case here. I saw this week that there will be more Grindhouse comics coming our way around the New Year, and that’s very good news.
Movement #12 – It’s a shame that Gail Simone couldn’t make a go of this series, which introduced mostly new characters to the New 52, and was set in an unlikely and unique setting. The problem with this book was that Simone took so long in getting around to introducing and developing these characters that, by the time we got to know them, the book was already cancelled.
Scene of the Crime #1-4
Art by Michael Lark
Anyway, Scene of the Crime has recently been re-released in a nice new hardcover edition, but I came across a complete set of the comics, and decided I’d rather read that.
This series came very early in writer Ed Brubaker’s career, and from what I can tell was his first mini-series (most of his earlier work appeared in anthologies like Dark Horse Presents). Artist Michael Lark had been around for a while, but hadn’t really made much of a name for himself (although I have fond memories of his issues of Shade the Changing Man). It was still kind of new for Vertigo to tell a straight-up noir story, without any fantastical elements at play.
The story is about Jack Herriman, a private investigator who is a lot younger than the usual archetype character we find in stories like this. Herriman lives with his aging uncle, who is a famous crime photographers (who’d once punched out Weegee in an argument), and they sometimes collaborate on his cases. When Jack was young, his police officer father was killed in a bomb blast that was meant to take out another cop, Paul Raymond, who has spent his life looking out for Jack. When the series opens, Paul has sent a new client to Jack.
The young woman is looking for her sister, who has gone missing. It doesn’t take Jack long to track her down, after discovering that she’d spent some time around a commune-like group (the story is set in San Francisco) that also makes their money growing weed. Jack and the missing sister have a nice conversation, and Jack leaves her, having completed his task. The next day, he discovers that the girl was murdered, and his sense of justice demands that he investigates further.
The story works very well, as Jack and a couple of his friends and accomplices investigate the hippy organization that the girl had briefly lived with, and find connections between it and another group whose commune had been destroyed in flames years before. Brubaker tells these types of stories very well, building up the characters into familiar types, (I was, at times, reminded of the 70s arcs of Fatale) but still keeping the story feeling fresh and interesting.
Lark is a very good artistic choice for this kind of story. His approach to realism is never flashy or attention-seeking, and he furthers the story quite well. He has a very good sense of personal drama about his characters.
This was a solid read that, with the exception of the rarity of modern personal electronics, has aged very well. That hardcover is worth getting a copy of.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle #1 – Michael Kupperman’s been at this series since 2005, which I hadn’t really thought about. This first issue of his very sporadic anthology humour series has a few funny moments, and lays the groundwork for the approach he’s taken ever since, but I felt like this issue was trying a little too hard, and lacked any of the longer strips that have made the last few year’s worth much more ‘thrizzling’.
Uncanny #6 – I’ve enjoyed Andy Diggle and Aaron Campbell’s series, but mostly because it reminds me a lot of Brubaker and Phillips’s Sleeper series.
X-Force #5 – I’m really not too sure about this X-Force series. Between the emotional wringer writer Simon Spurrier is putting Marrow through, and the Borat-like dialogue of the Russian oligarch bad guy, I’m just not getting too interested. Fill-in art by Jorge Molina is way preferable to regular series artist Rock-He Kim, but it’s not enough to buy the book for.
The Week in Manga:
20th Century Boys Vol. 12 – I’ve reached the halfway point of this series (there are 22 volumes of 20th Century Boys, followed by two volumes of 21st Century Boys), and it seems that people are finally starting to figure out who The Friend is. A famous Japanese singer, whose manager is one of the Kenji Group, gets a private audience, and in the elementary science lab, it appears that The Friend is unmasked to Otcho, but I feel like it’s a case of misdirection. Anyway, I am still very much enjoying Naoki Urasawa’s manga classic, and am very impressed with the way in which he controls information in this book, as the mystery only grows as the series continues.
The Week in Graphic Novels:
Rubicon
Art by Mario StillaI love a good war comic, and am always a sucker for a nicely-designed book, so picking up Rubicon, from Archaia’s Black Label imprint, seemed like an easy decision.This story, conceptualized by screenwriter, written up by a former SEAL, and then finally written for comics by a novelist and video game designer, modernizes the concept behind Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, and sets it in Afghanistan.We are introduced to Hector Carver, a fire team leader, who gets word that one of his close friends was killed in a suicide bombing within a forward operating base in the Panjshir Valley. His team is on its way (although I’m not entirely sure why – it’s not like the military would send special forces in after such an event), despite the fact that this puts Carver in hot water with his ex-wife, and his current girlfriend.
We learn that the bombing was carried out by a resident of a local village of opium farmers, who are opposed to the Taliban. This guy was forced into doing this because his family was being held captive. When Carver’s team find the guy who made the bomb, they drop him off in the village so that the bomber’s father can have his revenge. The village decides to let the guy go so as to not anger the Taliban, who decided to come back and steal all the opium anyway.
The soldiers decide to dig into the village and protect it, even though that leads to some difficulties with the locals. Carver’s team is supported by two FOBbits, one of whom feels a serious need to prove himself in the eyes of the more experienced operators. Much violence and bloodshed ensues.
This is a pretty standard story, and one that reminded me of a lot of fiction from the Vietnam War. The base is surrounded, everyone depends on one another, as they slowly get picked away by an overwhelming number of enemies. In that sense, the story works well, but there are some things that I felt weren’t very clear. I was not sure what the relationship between the village and the base was, and why there wouldn’t be more support during the big fight. I also was never clear on why Carver’s team was there in the first place. Perhaps this story needed a little more workshopping to make it smoother.
Mario Stilla’s art was very nice. He is an Italian artist, and so things look pretty European, in terms of layout and design. I especially liked the establishing shots that really captured the look and feel of a remote Afghan village. He also handles the action very well.
One thing I really liked about this book was the envelope at the back, which contained a variety of documents, such as a letter home, a Purple Heart certificate, and some military papers like maps and reports. I’ve always been a sucker for that kind of thing, and it helps add a level of veracity to the whole affair.
Shogum of the Dead Book 1: Twilight of the Samurai
by Daniel L. Werneck
This book was the last of my TCAF impulse buys that I hadn’t read yet. Cartoonist Daniel L. Werneck took popular the current trend for zombie stories, twisted the usual tropes of the genre a little, and set his tale in feudal Japan for Shogum of the Dead.
At the beginning, Lord Tachikawa has travelled to meet with Izanami, a supernatural creature from the underworld. She promises him that none of his clan would stay dead for as long as Tachikawa’s war with Yasutomo, his enemy, continues. When one of his soldiers is struck down, he rises later, not bothered by his injuries, and ready to continue the fight. As their death continues, these soldiers develop a bit of a smell, and a desire for human brains, but they retain their personality and intelligence.
The story is pretty sprawling, encompassing intrigue within Tachikawa’s house, the travails of an AWOL soldier, and the adventures of the Dirty Seven, a group of dead killers who are sent to kill Yasutomo’s son, but figure the best way to do that is to wait for him at a brothel for weeks.
Werneck takes a pretty irreverent approach to his story, and that makes this book fun to read. His art is a little on the rough side, but it works with this type of story. There’s plenty that could be expanded upon in this story, but I feel like he does a good job of telling a complete tale.
Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago… Vol. 4
Art by Gene Day, Tom Palmer, Kerry Gammill, Ron Frenz, Luke McDonnell, Bob Layton, Klaus Janson, Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon, Tom Mandrake, Bob McLeod, and David MazzucchelliThe first comic I ever bought was Marvel’s Star Wars #30, and with all of the hype surrounding the upcoming new movies, and the shifting of the license away from Dark Horse and towards Marvel, I’ve found myself occasionally wondering about those old licensed books, which I remember as being not all that good. I was at a very good used bookstore the other week, which also carries a lot of remaindered graphic novels, and saw Volume 4 of Dark Horse’s Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago…, their nice thick collections of the old Marvel stuff. The price was great, so I thought I’d pick this up (mostly because I’m a sucker for Bobba Fett, and the cover made it seem like he was going to be prominent in the volume).This book contains issues 68 through 85 of the regular Marvel series, an Annual (#3), and the four-part adaptation of Return of the Jedi (by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, no less).Most of the regular comics were written by Jo Duffy (whatever happened to her) and drawn by Ron Frenz, with very strong inks by the wonderful Tom Palmer. There are a fair number of fill-in issues, some by writers I’ve never heard of, and a few real surprises in terms of artist choices, like Klaus Janson, and a very early David Mazzucchelli.The stories varied a lot in quality. This series was famously hampered by a lack of foreknowledge of what was going to happen in the next film, leaving the writers to find ways of crafting interesting stories that don’t really develop the characters at all, and that don’t contain information that’s likely to be contradicted in the next movie. For that reason, there is a lot of Chewbacca and Lando looking for the frozen Han Solo, without ever going directly to Jabba the Hutt. After the events of Return, with Vader and the Emperor dead, the stories shift to Han’s misadventures in reclaiming lost money, and having the characters travel around looking for planets to start working with the Alliance.
The focus is largely on the swashbuckling, as bounty hunters are chased, and lost Rebel pilots are hunted for. There are some very unfortunate characters, such as Plif of the Hoojibs, a cutesy creature race that predates the Ewoks. There are also some very good comics in here, such as the annual, which has two young boys decide which side of the galactic conflict they are on.
It was a bit of a trip to read these stories, despite the fact that I only ever owned one of them (having moved on from Star Wars comics to almost everything else Marvel published at this time). There is a sense of naivety to these comics that matches the first Star Wars film, but considering the time period, I’m willing to forgive it. Now, if Jason Aaron and John Cassaday’s upcoming series reads like this…
Well, that’s everything I read this week (the store where I shop didn’t get their issues of Iron Fist or She-Hulk). What did you read? Let us know in the comments!
