With no new comics this week (apparently Blackest Night #6 wasn’t shipped to my store), it’s time to use the opportunity of Boxing Day Week sales, and get caught up on some titles that I either won’t buy at full price anymore, have been thinking of picking up/sampling, that fill holes in my collection, or were too good a deal to pass up. Here in Toronto we are fortunate to have a number of terrific comic stores, which ran some pretty nice sales, so I think my purchasing went a little over-board.
Boxing Week Spoils:
Best Book of the Week:
Solo #5
by Darwyn Cooke
Cooke, like the series Solo itself, is something I’ve grown to appreciate now much more than I did a few years ago. This is an amazing anthology of Cooke’s work.
The stories in this book are framed by short pieces featuring Slam Bradley, the hard-nosed DC P.I., drinking at a place called Jimmy’s. Between these short pieces, are a number of different stories, in a few different genres. This book features King Faraday, the Question, Batman, some guy who loves vacuum cleaners, and the young Darwyn Cooke himself.
It is that piece, an autobiographical tale of how he came to develop his passion for art, that stands out as the strongest in this comic, but each story has its own merits, and its own artistic style.
Cooke is a mercurial and talented artist. I really need to go get a copy of his Parker the Hunted…
Notable Books:
Farscape: Gone and Back #2 & 3
Written by Rockne S. O’Bannon and R.A. DeCandido
Art by Tommy Patterson, Nick Schley, and Juan Castro
This is one title I’ve come to regret not buying on a monthly basis, but it’s not fitting into my already too-generous comics budget. I’m glad to get the chance to catch up with Chrichton, who is still stuck off in his ‘unrealized reality’, where he has come to accept that he’s married to Katralla, and that Zhaan and D’Argo are still alive.
Instead of trying to figure out his way back home, John is instead concerned with finding and meeting Aeryn, who in this reality, has never left the Peacekeepers.
These two issues also shed some light on the identity of the guy with glowing eyes who has been following Moya and her crew for the last couple of series.
The characterization in these issues is excellent – I could practically hear Zhaan’s voice, her lines were so perfect. The art is perfectly serviceable, which is about all one can expect from a project of this nature…
Farscape: D’Argo’s Trial #2
Written by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Art by Caleb Cleveland
Continuing with my attempts to catch up with the Farscape comics, I snatched up the second issue in the second D’Argo mini-series. This issue details Jothee’s birth, and all of its surrounding events, up until the death of Lolann. A few pages here are simply retreads of things shown in the show – the episode where D’Argo finally confronts Macton in particular, but in this setting, they are shown with more context and chronology, adding emotional weight to them.
This title lacks much of the humour of the tv show or the main title, but given the subject matter, that seems quite appropriate. Cleveland continues to be the best of the Farscape artists – faithful to general appearances, but not afraid to add his own artistic flourishes.
Fraction #1-6
Written by David Tischman
DC started its ‘Focus’ imprint at a time when I was actively trying to buy less comics, so it was an easy choice for me to ignore. After reading the first volume of Hard Time in the summer, I realized that was an incorrect decision, and figured I would pick up the rest of that series, and any other Focus offerings if the chance presented itself. Enter Boxing Day Sales….
This series, which only lasted six issues, is about a group of four friends in their twenties, who get together one night to celebrate the release of one of the four from prison. They get up to their old antics, and start breaking into storage lockers. In one, they discover a high-tech suit of armor, like an Iron Man suit. Not trusting one another, they divide the pieces: helmet, gauntlets, boots, and chest-piece.
What follows is an interesting exploration of friendship among lower-class losers. One uses the gauntlets to gain revenge and plot crimes, while another uses the boots to fly around and rescue people. Of course, the suit belongs to someone, and they don’t waste much time trying to get it back. The four friends have to deal with a guy in another suit, and the fact that the cops (not to mention an ex-girlfriend and a controlling mother) are adding to the pressure they face.
It’s clear that the series was cut off before its intended ending; a subplot with four more people in suits doesn’t go anywhere, but Tischman was able to arrive at some form of resolution to his story.
Tischman really infused the comic with the personality of Philadelphia, it’s setting. There are digressions about Philly Cheesesteaks and the giant Claes Oldenberg sculpture of a clothespin.
The big draw to this book for me is the art by Green II. His work on Marvel’s Star-Lord title really caught my eye, as did his later work on Iron Fist. His work is a little rougher here, but his characters are quite emotive, and his background and landscape work is superb. I like his Geof Darrow meets Moebius sensibility, matched by the slightly washed-out colours of Brian Haberlin. Green draws some of the most visually interesting utility poles I’ve ever seen in comics…. The first two covers were drawn by Tomer Hanuka, and the remaining ones by Green. With such strong visuals, I’m surprised I didn’t pick up the comics when they originally came out.
Quick Takes:
Blackest Night JSA #1 – Unlike other recent JSA books, the characterization is okay here – it’s just the lack of consequence for the story. I feel like the whole thing is happening between panels of Blackest Night, and is therefore not that important. Barrow’s art looks good.
Dark Avengers: Ares #1 – 
Gillen does a good job of showing us, once again, why Ares is such a bad ass, as he starts to train his own squad of HAMMER goons. Garcia’s pencils look great with Gaudiano’s inks, although the pages inked by Pennington are notably not as nice. This issue sets the mini off to a good start, except I don’t think the plot should involve either Hera or Phobos – so much is being done with these characters in The Incredible Hercules and Secret Warriors, that it creates all sorts of continuity issues even as it treads over familiar ground.
Dark X-Men #1 & 2 – This comes off as an interesting attempt to make some use out of yet another incarnation of an X-Franchise: Harry Osborn’s X-Men. The problem is that the most stable and responsible person on the team is Mystique… I’m glad to see them bringing Nate Grey back; I always liked the kid (even if I didn’t read all of his title – see below). Kirk’s art always looks good – this would be a definite purchase if not for the price tag.
Doom Patrol #3-5 – I know I’m in the minority when I say this, but I like the main Doom Patrol feature way more than the Metal Men back-up. I loved Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguires’ JLI back in the day, but feel like their humour hasn’t aged all that well (or I’ve just matured past it), and comes off now as repetitive, predictable, and dull. In the main story, Giffen’s doing some interesting things with the former iterations of the team – bringing back the Kupperberg-era Patrol as Black Lanterns is a cool idea. Still and all, this book is not living up to its potential. I did hear that upcoming issues will feature Crazy Jane and Danny the Street though…
Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire #2-5 – 
I wish Marvel would re-think their policy of pricing Jason Aaron books at $3.99. This is a really fun ride through the demonic side of Marvel’s catalogue, with Daimon Hellstrom and a whole pile of crazy villains showing up. Any comic with zombie bikers, ‘gun nuns’, and the long-awaited return of Madcap has to be worth reading, and Aaron never lets up on the zaniness. I especially like seeing Ghost Rider fight against possessed construction vehicles – it’s like a five year-old’s idea of a restricted movie. Boschi’s art is perfect for this type of thing; with a more realistic artist, this would look ridiculous, but his brand of sketchy exaggeration helps pull it all off. Of course, reading this is nowhere near as rewarding as Scalped…
Justice League of America #39 & 40 – I know that Robinson has big plans for this book, but its not all that apparent from reading these, his second and third issues. Admittedly, it’s tough to launch a new direction for a title in the middle of a cross-over – effectively, these are two issues of filler until Blackest Night is over and done with. What we get is some nice pop psychology, as Robinson really peers into the brains of some of the second string, female Leaguers. It works really well for Dr. Light (who should have a more prominent role in the BN; she’s one of the few heroes on Earth who can kill a Black Lantern on her own), but feels a little forced for Gypsy and Vixen. I’ve never been a fan of Mark Bagley, but these comics look better than I expected.
Magog #1 – A lot of people have written about how bizarre DC’s business plan can be at times. Here they take a character who was originally meant as satire on the excess of Marvel’s 90’s characters like Cable, bring him into the mainstream DC universe, and while there is no particular demand for it, decide to give him his own series, and have him lead the JSA in a new spin-off book. Giffen works hard to turn this into a book that people might be interested in – he really attempts to make Magog an interesting character, but it’s like reading ‘cosmic Punisher’. The guy even has a hillbilly version of Microchip. Porter’s artwork looks awful here. I like a lot of his earlier work from the Ray and JLA, even Trials of Shazam, where he tried something new, but this is really bad. A very strange project….
Nation X #1 – For the last few years, Marvel keeps putting out these anthology mini-series to commemorate shifts in the status quo for the X-Characters, and to spotlight individuals in their increasingly massive cast. The problems with this are two-fold: first, they are not going to ever run a ‘big’ story in one of these titles, so they always come off feeling like ‘deleted scenes’ on a dvd; second, they can’t put big name creators on every story. This issue has the excellent Mike Allred drawing a totally forgettable Nightcrawler and Wolverine tale. The other stories are decent, if not special, and feature a nice moment between Colossus and Magick. The next issue has Becky Cloonan!
New Mutants #5 – I don’t see the need for this title at all, when the ‘New Mutants’ are anything but new, and X-Force and the defunct New X-Men did what this book does so much better. However, this issue is drawn by Zachary Baldus, and it’s lovely. The look reminds me a little of Sienkiewicz’s incredible NM run (the sedate moments), and while his Dr. Nemesis looks hideous, Baldus draws the most authentically Asian-looking Karma we’ve ever seen.
Punisher Max #1 – Continuing with the week’s theme of over-priced Jason Aaron comics, we have the start of the new ‘Max’ Punisher. It’s a good book, with an interesting take on the Kingpin, but a little too decompressed to bring me back for more. Maybe in trades…
Realm of Kings: Imperial Guards #1 & 2 – I’ve been enjoying Abnett and Lannings’ tenure as the architects of Marvel’s cosmic comics. They have brought a lot of great characters out of retirement and put them to good use. This series is kind of odd though – while at first it seemed like a more political comic about Guardian taking over the Shi’ar Imperium, it has somehow turned into a riff on Aliens. Still, they do good work building up a group of characters that were largely established as cipher LSH knock-offs.
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1 & 2 – This works a lot better than Imperial Guard did, but then, the Inhumans are more established characters, who have been getting a lot of play the last few years. I like the focus on the statecraft and politics the Inhumans must engage in as the new rulers of the Kree – it’s a very interesting direction to take them in, and a natural fit for these characters. The cross-over with the Mighty Avengers works well too, and Raimondi’s art looks terrific, perhaps even better than his work on X-Factor.
Thor #604 & 605 – I haven’t been much of a Thor fan since Simonson’s run ended, but I have liked the new visual aesthetic (if not the glacial pace) of JMS’s run. With Kieron Gillen coming on-board, I thought it was worth checking in to see how this title is doing. Sadly, I’m not too impressed. Doom is dissecting Asgardians so he can power a new set of armor, that he wears his usual armor in? I thought this guy became almost all-powerful during Millar’s Fantastic Four run. He shouldn’t need new armor. Even reading these two issues back-to-back, I’m not enthused for the next one. I guess this means I won’t have to pick up the Siege tie-ins…
Wolverine: Weapon X #5 -8 – More over-priced Jason Aaron goodness! Issue five is a great conclusion to the ‘Adamantium Men’ arc, while issues six through eight ditch Logan in Arkham Asylum. This is a very odd story arc, and it doesn’t seem to come together very well until the third chapter, where things get explained a little better. Personally, I think we need a five-year moratorium on stories where Wolverine’s mind gets messed with. I keep seeing how sales on this book are lower than what the regular Wolverine title was pulling in before the relaunched it as Dark Wolverine. I would gladly add this to my pull-list if they put the price down. It’s nowhere near as rewarding as Scalped either though….
X-Man #67-70 – For $4, I thought it was worth checking out one of the old Warren Ellis Counter-X experiments Marvel did with its tertiary mutant titles in 99/00. It’s not very good. This is the arc that explains why Nate Grey became a shaman, and got a very late-90s tattoo. Ariel Olivetti’s art is fine – actually, perhaps a little more palatable than his current, overly-computerized style.
The Week’s Graphic Novels:
Rex Libris Vol. 2: Book of Monsters
by James Turner
James Turner is a very interesting comics creator. His work isn’t easily explained or summarized, and when you try, things sound so much more ridiculous than they seem when you read his work. Let me show you what I mean:
Rex Libris Volume Two is about an Ancient Roman librarian with a Bronx accent who works in a library in New Jersey, and gets sucked into a rare book of monstrosities, wherein, due to an accident involving telluric radiation, all normal rules and classifications are moot; talks to a plant; and joins a group of American soldiers on a trip to a fictional island to sing a lullaby to a fictional elder god before it can wake up a real elder god, although all of his previous enemies were also drawn to same said island, including a nefarious criminal organization in which all members are trying to kill their leader; all the while said librarian treats his friends and readers to lengthy digressions to any point in his two-thousand year lifespan. Oh, and the whole thing is an experiment in visicomboics, a revolutionary method of storytelling, as explained by the editor of the comic book series based on Rex’s life (which is not to be confused with the story we are reading, apparently). Like I said, it sounds ridiculous.
However, when you read the book, it comes off as very funny. Turner draws the comic using vector software, and the figures are blocky and stiff, but that adds to the charm of the book. Turner never assumes that his reader is unintelligent, and peppers his book with obscure references to other literary works. The creatures and aliens he invents are always amusing, and often plausible.
If I have any complaint, it is only that I expected to see Simon the bird come swooping in at the last second to save the day, but he was sadly absent from most of this book. This is a unique piece of work, which I would highly recommend (after reading volume one) to anyone who enjoys literate, self-aware comics.
Wildcats Vol. 4: Battery Park
Written by Joe Casey
