Best Comic of the Week:
Unknown Soldier #20
W
ritten by Joshua Dysart
Art by Alberto Ponticelli
While I’m not happy to hear that DC is canceling Air, I’m really bummed out by the decision to stop publishing Unknown Soldier with the twenty-fifth issue. This title has been one of the nicest surprises to come out of Vertigo in the last decade. It’s a series written by an American, drawn by an Italian (I assume) about Uganda and its civil war. Sure, it features an American citizen as it’s main character (even if he is Acholi) and has an undercurrent of CIA black ops running throughout, but I don’t know of any other comic series that has attempted to portray such an accurate and human accounting of such a foreign place.
In this issue, Moses is still running from the Karamojong cattle rustlers that began to chase him last issue, and when he finds a tactically secure hiding spot in some rocky formations, it is not uninhabited. This forces Moses to work with a small widowed tribal family, hoping to hide its last three cattle from thieves.
Almost the entire issue is narrated by the disabled and mal-formed son of the family, and it gives some interesting insight into the region. In a textpiece, Dysart discusses the issue of cultural appropriation, which has always been in the back of my mind when reading this title, and comes to some useful conclusions. As always, the art in this book is fantastic, as is the incredible Johnson cover.
Other Notable Comics:
Garrison #2
Written by Jeff Mariotte
Art by Francesco Francavilla
I still don’t feel like I know too much about what’s going on in this series, but Mariotte’s writing and pacing is very tight, and Francavilla’s art is as wonderful as always. I like his drawing because he manages to convey a very old school sensibility – his work reminds me of illustrators from the 70s – in a very modern and updated context.
What we do know about the story is that this man Garrison is on a killing spree in a near-future where surveillance is almost absolute. There are a couple of government agencies looking to capture him, but after the events of the first issue, the NBS agent, Jillian Bracewell, is more interested in talking to him than capturing him, especially after he hinted that the HIA agent that he killed was planning on killing her.
Meanwhile, it is becoming apparent that Garisson doesn’t know who he is either, although he does seem to be experiencing some flashbacks that may shed some light on that as the series progresses.
This is a pretty cool light sci-fi espionage story, and I’m enjoying it. It’s nice to see Wildstorm publish things like this and Sparta: USA again. It was this willingness to experiment with unorthodox titles that made them a favourite publisher of mine a few years ago.
Northlanders #28
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Leandro Fernandez
The Plague Widow has been a pretty interesting arc of Northlanders. It has focused on Hilda, the titular widow, and her daughter Karin, and their trials as their settlement on the Volga River put itself in quarantine to stave off the Black Death. Most of the arc has been about Hilda’s issues with Gunborg, the loutish alpha male who eventually took over the settlement.
This final issue is different though. It chronicles Hilda and Karin’s desperate flight from the settlement into the Russian winter. The two are exiled and looking for some form of safe haven, and the entire issue is gripping in its suspense and sense of dread.
Hilda narrates the whole issue, and we understand the depths of sacrifice she will endure to not just keep her daughter physically safe, but to protect her young ideals. Her biggest hope is that Karin will survive all this with her morality intact.
This has been a very long arc, and Fernandez has done a wonderful job throughout of portraying the harsh landscape and difficult conditions. The characters have visually aged from the beginning of the story. Recommended.
Okko: The Cycle of Air #2
by Hub, with Emmanuel Michalak
This issue surprised me. It’s hard to talk about this issue without bringing up a pretty pivotal event that happens in it. We learn that the big guy that showed up in the first issue is Kubban Kiritsu, is a fierce demon hunter who wears a custom bunraku – basically a medieval Japanese Iron Man suit. He’s chasing down Noboru, Okko’s friend and apparently half-demon companion. This means he has to fight Okko, and that’s where some crazy stuff happens.
I’ve liked this title since I first started reading the Cycle of Earth
issues, but I’ve never really felt like I’ve had a handle on the characters, mostly because I didn’t read the first series. As this book progresses though, I find myself more and more drawn into this world, which is so strange and interesting. I am curious to see what happens next in this title, as it is intriguing and wonderfully well-drawn.
Proof #27
Written by Alex Grecian
Art by Riley Rossmo
Ever since its shipping schedule got shot to hell and the creators announced that the series was going to be finishing, Proof has gotten really good, with a lot more happening per issue than happened in some entire arcs earlier in the series’ life.
This issue has some pretty major revelations about Leander and his (not dead) wife, including what was in the box she received, Proof’s status as a singular being, and the death of the Dover Demon. Also, Proof gets some action of a more personal nature, and the male fairies get up and start walking around.
Having given us a vision of the future in issue 25, Grecian is now starting to lay the groundwork of what led us there. It’s nice to see the momentum pick up some, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this is all going to lead when ‘Season Two’ starts.
Scalped #38
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by RM Guera
Predictably, this is another brilliant issue of Scalped. It’s nice to see Guera back on art, especially for a one-off tale like this one. The focus this time around is on Wade, Dash Bad Horse’s father. Wade was sent to fight in Vietnam, and had a string of early brushes with death that built up his reputation as someone who couldn’t be killed. After being discharged, Wade stuck around in Vietnam, shipping heroin back to the States for two ex-MPs who lived in the same area of South Dakota as he did.
Dash doesn’t appear to fall far from the tree where Wade is concerned. The father is a selfish bastard, looking out only for himself. When Saigon falls and the good times end, Wade returns to the Prairie Rose Reservation, and we learn of another way in which the son’s life parallels the father’s.
In a lot of ways, the early pages of this book remind me of Aaron’s The Other Side, his brilliant debut comic which was set in Vietnam, and they make me wish that Aaron would spend less time writing for Marvel and would give us another war comic instead. He has an affinity for them.
The Secret History Book 9: The Thule Society
Written by Jean-Pierre Pécau
Art by Igor Kordey
It was a huge surprise to see the newest volume of this series out so soon after the last one. I guess this is definite proof that Archaia’s got their stuff together again, which is great for us.
Now that The Secret History has moved into the twentieth century, the story is slowing down by quite a lot, which only makes sense in that most packed century of human existence. The Great War is over, and the Archons are now trying to gather up the new rune stones discovered at Kor. Three of the houses now stand together, while Dyo and William of Lecce unleash the Spanish influenza on the world and build up their semi-secret Thule Society into a pre-Nazi organization.
The Secret History has always been about the power of symbols, so it only makes sense that 20th-Century Germany be the main battleground for what comes next, and that Hitler be a major player, even if he is never mentioned by name in this issue.
Where before I was often unsure of this title, now that it’s so firmly grounded in events that are more familiar to me, I find it am enjoying it more and more. As the pace of the book slows a little, the secondary characters get developed a lot more, and this makes the book more interesting for me. I hope it sticks to a schedule like this too…
Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #2
W
ritten by Warren Ellis and Mike Wolfer
Art by Gianluca Pagliarani
Ellis and Wolfer are using this Wolfskin series to really explore the myths and religious beliefs of their Barbarian character’s world. This issue starts with the various characters pictured on the cover talking about the end of the world stories of their own cultures, and of some others. Most of this stuff is based on established legends in our world, although the writers have put their own little spin on things.
The rest of the issue is taken up with the journey to one of the character’s homelands, which is being threatened by some form of black beast. Along the journey, we see that the Wolfskin has a deeper aversion for machines or technology than we had thought.
It’s an interesting comic, so far almost completely lacking the brutality of the other Wolfskin outings, which I find kind of interesting. It’s a little like Wolfer and Ellis decided that, if they were going to tell any more stories with this character, they would need to add some depth to the proceedings.
This is not the best of the Ellis Avatar series, but it’s definitely decent.
Quick Takes:
Amazing Spider-Man #632 – This Lizard arc has been great. Wells is really messing with Curt Connors and his family, and is taking the character to a logical next step. Bachalo’s art is fantastic, and although he didn’t finish the issue, Emma Rios is an able substitute. I like the way she draws Spidey.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 – This is a fun comic, with two stories from Spidey’s early days, but they both feel like second-drawer inventory tales. The Paulo Siqueira art on the Spidey and Cap story is nice, but the cover is the best part of this comic.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2 – I think there’s now a rule or law in the comics world that if you’re going to feature Puritans or Witch Trials, you have to have Frazier Irving on art, and that’s a rule I support, because his stuff is gorgeous. The story is a little confusing in a Morrison kind of way, but it’s cool none the less. How did Superman and friends figure out what’s going on with Batman though? That hasn’t been explained yet.
Detective Comics #865 – This two-part Arkham story has done nothing for me, although I do like Jeremy Haun’s artwork. I don’t think I’ll be sticking around for the rest of Hine’s run. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but I like my Batman to be beyond reproach. Is this the end of the Question back-up? It started out great, but I feel like it lost steam as soon as Vandal Savage came into the picture. I don’t like what this ending implies, either…
Fantastic Four #579 – Hickman’s run on this title has been unique in its general lack of super-heroing, as he instead takes a very slow approach to building up a new status quo for the FF. This issue starts with Reed hosting, and berating, a scientific conference on the future, as he takes the brightest minds of his generation to task for not being forward-thinking enough. What I like about his writing is that it’s easy to believe that he has written at least the abstracts for all the different papers discussed here. It’s an interesting approach to Marvel’s first team, and while I can imagine it has only limited appeal to many comics readers, I’m enjoying it. I wouldn’t object to things speeding up a little though…
Green Lantern #54 – Well, I don’t really like Brightest Day I fear. I thought my displeasure would be confined to the bi-weekly title, but this issue makes it seem like it’s going to be closely tied to it (especially when a few pages are basically repeated). The focus on those weird energy entities is not going to keep me interested. Too bad, because Dough Mahnke’s art is great.
Green Lantern Corps #48 – This is a little more like it, as Tony Bedard debuts as new writer on the series, Ganthet becomes a Green Lantern, John Stewart gets some stage time, and something weird starts up with the Alpha-Lanterns. There doesn’t seem to be much Brightest Day nonsense aside from the first couple of pages, and Syaf’s art looks good. If I decide to drop GL, I’ll be holding on to GLC.
Secret Avengers #1 – The concept behind this book appeals to me, even if I have to question just how covert one needs to be on Mars – who would know? This is a pretty weird team – characters like Moon Knight and Valkyrie don’t really belong in the same title, but I’m very curious to see how it all plays out. Deodato’s art is nice, although he’s not so good at space ships. A part of me thought that this new outfit for Cap was a joke, although it might be better than the cable-knit sweater look he’s rocking in the adjectiveless Avengers…
Secret Warriors #16 – This book is really kicking into high gear as Hydra and Leviathan go to war with each other, and there is another betrayal that will affect Nick Fury and his team. This is a very cool book, although it’s very involved and probably not very easy for a new reader to pick up at this point.
Superman: War of the Supermen #4 – I’m pretty sure that the last issue of Adventure Comics had Brainiac 5 saying that the Phantom Zone was sealed off in our era, but it’s all good here. The fact that those two comics are written by the same writer is sad, but so is much of what went on in this title. When this storyline started some two years ago, I saw a lot of promise in it. So much so that I bought the Super titles regularly for the first time in my life. It fizzled pretty quick, but with this mini-series coming to a close, I can say ‘peace out’ to the Man of Steel for the foreseeable future.
Thanos Imperative : Ignition#1 – As much as I don’t want the Guardians of the Galaxy or Nova to end as monthly series, if it means that DnA get to play with all their characters in one book, and that I don’t have to worry about too many spin-off mini-series that are too expensive, then I’m happy to buy the Thanos Imperative series, and whatever comes after it. This is how big cosmic events should be done, as the long-running machinations of Adam Magus combine with the plans of the evil Fault gods, and it looks like Thanos might be the only person who can save anyone. This is great stuff, although I feel for anyone who hasn’t been following the two afore-mentioned series. This would be too confusing without them. Strange choice for a back-up reprint too. Is this how they can establish Thanos as the ultimate bad guy? Be careful, he crushes flowers! The horror….
Thunderbolts #144 – As Luke Cage takes over the Thunderbolts, he borrows a few pages from Amanda Waller’s playbook. I’m not quite sure how this incarnation of the team will work out, but I’m definitely curious enough to stick around for a bit. I love that Man-Thing is on the team, but the Crossbones bit makes no sense to me. Kev Walker’s art is a bit of a weird fit for this, and I hate the gauntlet thing that Cage is wearing (and really, a yellow shirt?).
X-Force #27 – I would say this is the best X-crossover since the Mutant Massacre, which is kind of what this is all turning into, as a few more team members get badly injured, and the stakes raise yet again. I think the decision to have the first half of the issue, the fight scene where the X-Men square off against a large group of Nimrod Sentinels, told in silence was a wise one. First, Mike Choi is a terrific artist, but also, I don’t think that battle patter or random shouting would have added anything to the mix. By leaving out any dialogue, the writers added weight to the scene. Later, the decision to send the X-Force group into the future seems a little questionable; I would have at least added one powerhouse like Psylocke to the mix. Unless of course Cable is a telekinetic again – I can never keep that straight.
Comics I Would Have Bought if They Weren’t $4:
Choker #3
Dazzler #1
Doomwar #4
7 Psychopaths #1
Wolverine: Weapon X #13
X-Men Second Coming Revelations: Blind Science #1
Bargain Books:
Amazing Spider-Man #600 – This is a nice big chunk of comics, but the main story is way too long. The back-ups are cute, but aside from some nice Martin artwork, there’s not much here to recommend.
Amazing Spider-Man #622 – This is a great art issue (Quinones and Ross), with a decent enough Morbius story. This catches me up completely on The Gauntlet, not that all of the chapters are needed to understand the story.
Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #1 – I enjoyed this way more than I expected to, as the unlikely pair spend months living back in prehistoric times after some strange bank heist goes all wrong. I love that Aaron is working so hard to put The Orb in a place of prominence as a Marvel villain, having used him recently in Ghost Rider as well.
Doomwar #2 – This issue isn’t as good as the first, which was amazing, but it is a decent piece of work. I’m not sure how this story will drag out for four more issues though…
Firestar #1 – I picked this up for Emma Rios’s artwork, which is fantastic. Sean McKeever’s story is fine, but pretty generic. I find it hard to believe that someone who runs a department for a company would still act like such a middle school brat, but McKeever can’t really write adults…
Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1 – I’m not sure why we’d need a 1950s Marvel Boy story; I was expecting something set in the current timeframe. Still and all, Parker’s a great writer, and Ruiz’s Bill Sienkiewicz-lite look strangely works here.
The Week in Graphic Novels:
It Was The War of The Trenches
by Jacques Tardi
This is a stunning book. Tardi’s graphic novel of the First World War is really a collection of short pieces concerning French soldiers on the front lines of that horrible conflict. The stories stand alone, yet when read together they create a compelling portrait of life in the trenches, made more impressionistic by the fact that there is no visible border between one story and the next.
Tardi’s soldiers lack many of the standard tropes of war fiction. His privates care nothing for the war, and often cannot express why they are there. They would rather befriend the German Boches who usually are hunkered down only fifty metres from them in equally miserable states than murder them. They have no animosity towards their enemy except in immediate response to brutality, and usually reserve their most piercing hatred for their officers or the military police that urge them forward at the point of a rifle.
Tardi’s soldiers frequently get lost in No Man’s Land or behind the lines, and are almost as frequently executed for desertion or dereliction of duty. Tardi has a very bleak view of the way the war was managed and fought, a view informed by his own grandfather’s experiences, some of which are grist for Tardi’s mill here.
It is this existentialist view of the war that places this beautifully designed book in the ranks of the great war memoirs and fiction written by the soldiers who actually served. Looking at Tardi’s fantastic establishing shots and detailed backgrounds brings to mind the etchings of Otto Dix or the murkier of FH Varley’s war paintings.
This is a beautiful and haunting piece of work. I love reading about the Great War, and place this book among the best that I’ve read on this topic.
Refresh Refresh
Written by Benjamin Percy, James Ponsoldt, and Danica Novgorodoff
Art by Danica Novgorodoff
First Second puts out some very interesting graphic novels. This book is about a group of teen boys in a rural town whose fathers have left to fight in Iraq. It’s a military town; most families seem to be missing their men, and the boys are adrift now. It’s not so much that they are lacking their fathers’ guidance – many young men get through that just fine – it’s more that the uncertainty that has crept into their lives is working like a cancer. It’s not knowing what’s happening or what the future holds that eats away at them, and causes them to act strangely.
The three boys at the heart of this book, Josh, Cody, and Gordon, box with each other constantly, trying to build up a level of toughness. They also sneak into bars, try to pick up older women, and hunt in the woods (the ease with which these kids use guns surprises me, but I’m looking at things from an urban Canadian perspective). They also check their e-mails constantly, looking for some sort of message or update from their fathers.
This graphic novel is based on a screenplay that is based on a short story, and it looks at a very modern aspect of warfare; the prominence of communication technology. In the first and second world wars, or even in Vietnam, it would take some time for letters to arrive from the front lines. Now that communication is instantaneous, it is hard not to read the worst into prolonged silences. These kids know that their fathers have the ability to telephone or e-mail, and so when they don’t, it gnaws at them.
This is a touching story, with decent, unpretentious art. Novgorodoff captures the essence of these kids’ waning youth, and the difficulty of the choices they have to make. I thought the ending was brilliant.
Afrodisiac
by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca
The character of Afrodisiac really stood out when he appeared in Rugg and Maruca’s classic Street Angel series, and returning to the character in this slim hardcover was a really good idea.
This book is designed (brilliantly, I might add) as a series of excerpts from the lengthy publishing history of Afrodisiac, a blaxploitation character who supposedly had comics, cartoons, and toys based on his adventures through the seventies and into the early eighties. Afrodisiac is a super-pimp, with a large stable of girls to watch over.
In the different comics, designed to mimic different styles from that era, his origin always changes. What remains constant is that he’s one cool badass.
What I like about this book is the amount of time and effort put into its aesthetics. Pages are artificially yellowed, and Rugg works in a number of different styles. There is very little substance to the book; it’s all flash, and that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. This is one hell of a cool book.
Life Sucks
Written by Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria
Art by Warren Pleece
This is a fantastic little graphic novel that came out with very little fanfare, and was criminally overlooked.
Life Sucks is Twilight meets Clerks. In the Life Sucks world, classic Old World vampires sire themselves slave to run their business empires while they hang out in a wood-paneled club-house hidden in a scary old castle. Dave is stuck working for Lord (Radu) Arisztidescu at his all-night convenience store, where among other things, he sells ‘Blood Beer’ and ‘Blood Orange Juice’ to a certain select group of customers. Dave has to do his master’s bidding, and so he is trapped in this menial job.
One of his closest friends is a vampire working for one of Radu’s friends, as his Wes, his nemesis. Dave’s roommate is not a vampire, but is fully aware of his friend’s status as a ‘vegetarian vampire’, refusing to hunt and drinking only blood bank blood. Dave has fallen hard for Rosa, a local Goth girl who festishizes vampire culture.
The majority of the story deals with Dave’s building up the nerve to begin to talk to Rosa, only to have Wes declare his interest in her. In many ways, this book reads like a very intelligent sitcom, with the rivals competing for the girl’s attention. There are tons of small touches that are quite amusing, and the characters are very likeable.
A lot of credit has to go to Warren Pleece, who has never failed to deliver when working on a character-driven comic. This is a fun, and funny, book, which should be adapted into film or would work well as the basis of a television series.
The Hellboy Project: B.P.R.D. Vol. 4: The Dead
Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by Guy DavisThis is the first of the BPRD trades co-written with John Arcudi, and he brings a very different pacing to the story. In the wake of the revelation of the Frogs outbreak, the Bureau gets a new field commander and opens up a new office in some ex-military base up high on a mountain.
Captain Daimio is a bit of a jerk, but he’s ex-military so it’s all good. He also was dead for a while, but not much is explained about that. The new base has some secrets, including a sealed-up ex-Nazi scientist who has a plan to bring heavenly bug angel things into our world.
Much of this arc exists to set up Daimio and his relations with the other members of the team. Roger is written as pretty dumb in this book, which doesn’t exactly fit with her earlier characterizations, and felt kind of off. Other than that, the story works quite well, even if it’s a little more decompressed than this title was before.
There is a long sub-plot involving Abe Sapien tracking down the house he’d lived in before his transformation; a house still inhabited by the spirit of his dead wife. Their scenes together, while short, form a nice juxtaposition to the rest of the story, and are kind of touching in their way.
The Hellboy Project: Hellboy Vol. 6: Strange Places
by Mike Mignola
This has to be the strangest of the Hellboy trades I’ve read so far. It consists of two stories set in the time after Hellboy leaves the BPRD to set out on his own.
In the first story, his trip to Africa leads to him being trapped under the ocean in the possession of the Bog Roosh, yet another ancient creature that has plans for our hero.
The second story has Hellboy finally emerge from the ocean onto a strange island, where he ends up in conflict with yet another demon creature thing who also has designs on his right hand. This story finally tells us the history of the Ogdru Jahad, the big bad of the Mignola-verse, and explains how many things fit together in terms of prophecy and big stone hands. To be honest, stories like this kind of fly past me. I have a hard time staying focused on the mumbo-jumbo, and prefer to see the more character-based stories.
What I enjoyed most in this volume were the strange settings that Mignola created. This book doesn’t look much like the other Hellboy stories, and I appreciated that. I also think it very strange that the first story here started out as a Sub-Mariner adventure before being re-purposed for Hellboy.
Album of the Week:
