The Weekly Round-Up #236 & 237 With The Walking Dead, The Wicked + The Devine, Archer & Armstrong, Armor Hunters, BPRD, FBP, MPH, Sex Criminals, Star Wars & More

Columns, Top Story

It’s a double round-up this week folks, as June is too busy to handle a weekly column.  I’m going to have to take next week off as well, but then things should go back to their regular schedule.

Best Comics of the Fortnight:

The Walking Dead #128Last issue, Robert Kirkman jumped the storyline forward by a while – at least a year or two I’d say, and this issue continues to explore the progress that Rick and his community have made in that time.  It’s not all good news, despite the fact that they make their own bread now, as some new arrivals look to be causing some trouble.  What I like most about this new direction is the way in which the relationship between Rick and Carl has changed.  Charlie Adlard handles some very subtle emotions amazingly well here.

The Wicked + The Divine #1 – Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie have launched a new on-going series that touches on similar ground as their modern classic Phonogram, and this first issue is a master class in starting a series.  The book begins in the 1920s, as a group of strangely-dressed people appear to commit suicide.  From there, we move to modern-day London, where a seventeen year old girl attends a concert that has an amazing effect on her.  Later, she is invited backstage, where the reader is able to piece together that the performers are gods, who apparently return to Earth to live for two years every century.  Lucifer, a young woman apparently heavily influenced by David Bowie, is the character who speaks the most; she’s caustic and quick to anger, and when a group of Christians try to kill the group from a distance, she acts, which lands her in some trouble with the authorities.  While setting all of this up, Gillen gives us a new world that would equally appeal to fans of Sandman as it will fans of Warren Ellis’s Authority and Planetary.  I love the way he writes about music, and the power that it can have over people.  McKelvie just keeps getting better, and this book is gorgeous.  As if things weren’t already almost perfect, I ended up with the Bryan Lee O’Malley variant edition!

Quick Takes:

Abe Sapien #13Mike Mignola and Scott Allie keep taking this book into darker and darker places, as they give us this strange tale involving a faith healer, a very old statue of Jesus, and a Frog whose transformation was arrested by the judicious application of horse tranquilizers.  Sebastian Fiumara gives this book a lot of atmosphere, and Guy Davis even shows up to draw a backup story, which is a treat.  Dark Horse is promoting this issue as a good jump-on point, but I’m not sure I would agree with that.  Efforts are made to catch a new reader up, but it’s still pretty involved stuff.

Alex + Ada #7 – Apparently it’s not all that easy to keep secret the fact that you have turned your human-like robot into a sentient creature, as Ada’s first interactions with the larger world go less than well.  Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn are making one of the most interesting romance comics I’ve ever read.

All-New Ultimates #3 – I think I’m going to have to give up on this book.  I had pretty high hopes for Michael Fiffe’s writing debut at Marvel, but as much as I like the characters in this latest approach to the Ultimates property, Fiffe’s approach is just not working for me.  I find that a lot of the storytelling in this comic is disjointed, making the book a little difficult to follow in places.  The relationships in this book feel forced, and I’m not clear on why these kids are doing any of the things they are doing.  And who names a character, much less a drug dealer, Poey?  I think it’s the dumbest name I’ve ever heard.

All-New X-Men #28 Brian Michael Bendis has a cool explanation for why so many of the Future Bad X-Men are still around, although it’s kind of a convoluted one, as he spends very little time actually advancing that team’s attack on the Secret Charles Xavier School (it’s called that so many times I actually think that’s the place’s name).  This series is really starting to lose me, as it descends ever further into Bendisian self-reference and glacial plotting.

Archer & Armstrong #21 – The American Wasteland arc is the best one this series has ever seen, as our two heroes, trapped by Jim Morrison’s Scientologist-like cult in a strange afterlife for the famous dead, try to make their escape.  This book is hilarious (Biggie and 2Pac’s cameos being my favourite scene), but also very well-thought out and planned.  Brilliant stuff from Fred Van Lente in this book.

Armor Hunters #1 – Valiant’s big event of the summer kicks off quite well, as the Hunters arrive on Earth, and decide that they need to make a clear example of just how powerful they are, and why the rest of the Earth should just hand over the X-O Manowar armor to them.  When a company like Valiant wipes out an entire city full of people, I expect that there will be more repercussions to the event than there are in, say, a Marvel or DC event.  My only problem with this story so far is just how generic the Armor Hunters look and feel.  I don’t get the sense that they are from different alien civilizations, especially since one looks like a Millennium-era Manhunter, another like Green Lantern Salakk, and their vessel reminds me of the Micronaut’s Biotron.  Doug Braithwaite does a good job with what he’s given, but I’d have thought the designs would be more unique.

Avengers #31On the last page of this issue, Hawkeye asks, “Does anyone know what the hell is going on around here?”  That pretty much sums up my feelings on this arc, which is supposedly connected to Original Sin, only I can’t discern how.  The Avengers continue bouncing through time, moving ever forward to a time when Ultron runs the entire planet, and has made robotic Avengers who resent the originals.  A big part of the problem with this book is Leinil Francis Yu’s art, which is cluttered and unclear.  I’m hoping that Jonathan Hickman gets this book back on track soon, as it’s becoming ever harder to follow, and the story here doesn’t play well with his other two Avengers titles.

Avengers Undercover #5 – We finally get to the series’s raison d’être, as the Murderworld survivors decide to try to infiltrate Baron Zemo’s organization as a way of redeeming themselves in the hero community.  Dennis Hopeless writes these characters well, but this series has suffered from a bit of a lack of direction.  Hopefully the events of this issue will help provide more purpose.

Avengers World #8 – Is Nick Spencer the regular writer of this series now, or is he just filling in for an over-worked Jonathan Hickman?  Either way, the story progresses by a miniscule amount, as we discover that the Black Knight was leading a team of European heroes into the secret Italian underground city, and he joins up with Spider-Woman’s squad.  Even at a bi-weekly pace, this series is moving way too slowly for my liking.

Bloodshot and HARD Corps #23 I really like the way that Duffy Boudreau and Christos Gage wrap up this latest iteration of Bloodshot, with him and one of the Corps taking on Project Rising Spirit.  This book has been very inconsistent, and is now moving into an Armor Hunters mini-series for a few months, which I can’t decide about.  Part of what made the HARD Corps issues work is a strong supporting cast.  Bloodshot on his own is just not that interesting a character to me, mostly because his whole deal is that he doesn’t really have a personality of his own.

BPRD Hell on Earth #120 – After all the big events that took place in New York in the last arc, it’s time for a smaller story, drawn by the always chilling Laurence Campbell.  An old file in the BPRD headquarters causes problems, as Kate gets lost in the dark and encounters a lot of weirdness (as well as Sledgehammer, in a cool little cameo).  We also get a flashback featuring young Hellboy.  This series is always a good read.

Elektra #3 – I find it strange how minor a character Elektra really is in her own comic.  This is more about the hunt for Cape Crow, a legendary assassin, by some guy in a lion skin who has Tony Chu’s abilities.  Were it not for Mike Del Mundo’s art, I’d be long gone by now.

Fatale #23The penultimate issue of Fatale does not disappoint, as Nick finally gets to fully understand Josephine, and we all learn what she’s been working towards for most of this series.  I’m really going to miss this title when it’s gone, but luckily Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are going to keep working together on a new series very shortly.

FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics #11 – I’ll admit that I’m getting a little confused by this current arc of this series, as I know that Adam is supposed to be in a parallel dimension, but at the same time, he seems to be interacting with things that have been going on in the main dimension.  This ‘weird physics government agency’ series has been entertaining, and Robbi Rodriguez’s art has been terrific from the start, but I feel like I may be losing interest because of this current storyline.

Harbinger #24 – I’ve been pretty surprised with the direction Joshua Dysart has taken this book over the last couple of issues.  This one feels like the series is wrapping up completely, as Peter finishes his battle with Harada, as the rest of the team deals with the fall-out from last month’s death of a character.  Dysart is a terrific character-driven writer, and that has been this comic’s greatest strength all along.  I really have no idea what might happen with next month’s issue, which is not something that can be often said about for-hire series.

Iron Patriot #4I’m really disappointed in this series.  I don’t understand why there was any need to change Rhodey’s persona from the War Machine to the Iron Patriot if what that means is not going to be explored at all.  Now we have him completely taken over by an unnamed man who is using him for revenge, while his niece becomes the most interesting part of the book.  I am not surprised to see that Marvel has quietly cancelled this book, as I would have expected a lot more from Ales Kot.

Justice League United #2 – There’s a lot of exposition in this issue, as Sardath arrives on the scene to fill everyone in on Ultra the Multi-Alien and Byth’s plans for him, but nobody bothers to explain where Supergirl came from; she just shows up and starts helping out.  When I heard that this series was being done by Jeff Lemire and Mike McKone, I really expected a lot out of it, but so far, it’s been a little disappointing and underwhelming.  Lemire does seem to enjoy having Animal Man and Green Arrow take shots at each other, but the rest of this book is actually kind of dull and uninspired.  I was going to stick around until the book ties into an event, but I’m thinking it might be time to jump ship…

The Manhattan Projects #21 – It’s been a while since we last saw Laika, the Cosmonaut dog, so it’s nice that Jonathan Hickman decided to fill us in on her adventures in deep space.  She’s been captured by a race that collects and analyzes other species, but is soon freed when some other aliens attack.  Ryan Browne draws this issue, and does a fine job of creating some interesting new species, although I much prefer Nick Pitarra on this book.

Manifest Destiny #7The new arc of this excellent series starts with some problems between Lewis and Clark, and how they are going to manage the fact that one of the women they rescued and added to their crew has discovered the true purpose of their mission.  As they continue to explore, they come across a familiar structure, which spells more doom for the group.  Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts are making a pretty unique book, and I’m really liking it.

Mighty Avengers #11 – I don’t understand how, if someone was setting a comic in New York in the 1970s, they would want Francesco Francavilla to draw the cover, but then give the interiors to Greg Land.  This comic is very well-written, but has been saddled with some truly awful artwork.  Land’s 70s are bland and too cleanly drawn, and as we’ve come to expect from him, it’s almost impossible to tell characters apart.  At a pivotal scene, a blond woman with dogs shows up in a city morgue, and I think I, as a life-long Marvel comics reader, am expected to recognize her, but could only think that she’s either Dazzler, Emma Frost, or any other blonde that Land’s drawn before.  The story involves Luke Cage quizzing his father on an event from that era, where the elder Cage (who is really Lucas, but I don’t remember why) teamed up with Blade, Adam Brashear, and a few others.  The story fits with what Al Ewing has been doing with the book almost from the beginning, and so as an Original Sin tie-in, nothing feels overly forced (aside from the art).

MPH #2Last issue, Roscoe, a basically good kid who has tried to stay good while working for a drug lord, tried out MPH, and was given fantastic speed.  In this issue, he decides to use these new abilities to try to improve his life and that of his friends, while still having a good time.  Mark Millar is trying to think logically about how such a situation would work, but falls down pretty heavily in the comic book science category.  It’s cool that Roscoe can use his speed to disarm guns and the like, but it doesn’t really stand to reason that he can operate computers and cellphone cameras at a greater speed.  Otherwise, this is an enjoyable series, just don’t think too much.

New Avengers #19 – Once again, Namor steals the show as the Illuminati confront Jonathan Hickman’s Justice League stand-ins, and they try to figure out how to save both their worlds from the dimensional incursion that condemns them both to death.  This issue is handled very well, although it’s a little confusing that these events take place after the current Avengers arc is over.

Original Sin #4 – Things just keep getting stranger and stranger as we hit the half-way point of this event, as all the various heroes that have been recruited to look into the Watcher’s death meet up at a mysterious space station and get into a big fight.  Last issue showed the Winter Soldier decapitating a major Marvel character, but that event has now been called into question, as this book becomes less and less about the Watcher.  I’m not impressed with where this book is going, but I keep buying it.

Rai #2It took me a long time to get a copy of this comic, but it was worth the wait I think, as Matt Kindt expands our knowledge of New Japan while also making the mysteries at the core of this arc a little clearer.  Clayton Crain’s art works half the time – sometimes I find it a little hard to follow, but at other places, it’s lovely.  I like the way Kindt incorporates Dr. Silk, from his Unity series, into the future.  It’s that interconnectedness that always made the first Valiant Universe work so well.

San Hannibal #2 – The second issue of this private eye series has confused me a little, but I think that’s more because I was really tired when I read it.  Dan Schkade’s story feels like it’s growing into something about much more than a missing person, and I like the way the city of San Hannibal plays a part in the story.  I think I’m going to stick with this title, but I want to give this issue a second read before I commit.

Secret Avengers #4 – Ales Kot’s take on this book is still a lot of fun, but I’m not really sure where this book is going.  In this issue, New Nick Fury and Hawkeye track down the Fury, which has appeared in a part of Hong Kong that doesn’t exist (and that is not adequately explained), while Maria Hill and MODOK continue on their weird ‘will-they-or-won’t-they?’ thing.

Sex Criminals #6The second arc starts off with this issue, and we find our heroes in a bad place after they escaped the Sex Police.  Jon has gone back on his medication, and is having a hard time staying connected to the world, and especially Suzie, who has thrown herself into her work, trying to save her library.  This issue is not as full of joy as the previous ones, as Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky are taking a somewhat darker tone with the book, and that threw me a little.  Still, this is a very entertaining comic.

She-Hulk #5 – Since he started this series, writer Charles Soule has been dropping hints about Jen Walter’s ‘blue file’, a legal case in which she and some of her Avengers compatriots were sued by a guy in North Dakota, only She-Hulk doesn’t remember anything about it.  In this issue, she goes to have a chat with a co-defendant, the Shocker, while Hellcat checks in with Tigra, and Jen’s paralegal travels to the county courthouse looking for a paper trail.  In all instances, something strange happens when the file is brought up.  Ron Wimberly provides the art for this issue, and his work is a poor fit with regular artist Javier Pulido.  I like Wimberly’s stuff (and have since I read his great OGN Sentenced), especially the strange perspectives and points of view that he uses, but felt that it doesn’t work with the aesthetic of this title (unlike how, when Daredevil needs a guest artist, it’s always someone who compliments Chris Samnee’s style).  Still, this continues to be an excellent read, even if I have no idea why Spawn is on the cover.

The Sixth Gun #41This month we get an interlude issue, where Cullen Bunn and guest artist Tyler Crook give us the history of Griselda, the Grey Witch, who is really the main villain of this series.  It’s interesting, and could have been tied into Bunn’s Helheim series pretty easily.  This is a great series, and I think it’s moving towards its big finish.  This book deserves more recognition.

Starlight #4 – Mark Millar and Goran Parlov’s “Buck Rogers gets old” series is really picking up the pace as Duke McQueen escapes prison to join up with the revolution, and we get a little homage to the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents in the middle of all the sci-fi goodness.  Parlov’s work is what’s really making this comic for me.

Star Wars #18 – Brian Wood wraps up another story arc as the Imperials crash Leia’s wedding in a big way.  This was a pretty exciting issue in a series that is being cut short way too soon because of Marvel’s acquisition of the Star Wars rights.

That’s Because You’re a Robot – You have to love comics, because nowhere else could a story like this actually work.  Jeff and Matt are cops in the future, and one of them is human while the other is a robot.  The only problem is, they don’t know which is which.  This leads to a number of amusing scenes as they try to convince the other that he is the robotic one, and that in turn leads to them bungling whatever assignment they are supposed to be working on.  It’s Police Academy meets Judge Dredd, as artist Shaky Kane does the kind of weirdness he does best, to a story by David Quantick.

Uncanny X-Men #22Brian Michael Bendis wraps up a lot of the plot threads he’s been working on for a long time in his X-Books, as SHIELD attacks the Jean Grey School (except that their helicarriers are not under their control) while Magneto brings Dazzler back from Mystique’s imprisonment.  There are a few too many easy outs here (mostly involving Hijack), and the revelation of just who has been working to destroy the X-Men is kind of ridiculous (although it does get rid of a character I’ve always hated).  It feels like Bendis had to suddenly clear the decks for the Original Sin tie-in that is coming up, and so he just motored through this book.  Chris Bachalo’s art is always nice, but without text, I never would have figured out who the big bad guy was.  Also, since when can the Stepford Cuckoos turn to diamonds like Emma Frost?  She tells them to ‘diamond up’, although they don’t look any different in subsequent panels.  And how can you have Dazzler asking for a Walkman without having any of the teenage characters ask what that is?  In all, this is a pretty sloppy comic, without even having to discuss the fact that all animosity between Cyclops and the Jean Grey School X-Men appears to have completely disappeared.

United States of Murder #2 – Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s new series feels like the freshest work they’ve done in some time, as we start to understand just how the mafia came to control a massive territory within the United States (and it all goes back to the Kennedys).  Valentine is managing the revelations his mother dropped on him in the first issue, and has been assigned to figure out what went wrong in Washington DC.  Bendis is putting together a pretty interesting world (although I’d be curious to see what it’s like for an average person to live in a mob-run city).

Unity #8The Unity team is of course going to get involved in the Armor Hunters event, but they really are mismatched, as Ninjak and Gilad try to extract some of the Russian armor, and as Livewire goes to recruit Bloodshot to the team.  This is a solid issue in what is looking like its going to be a successful event.

Wasteland #55 – Antony Johnston continues to use this final arc to explain everything that happened to put the world into the state it’s been in since this series started.  It’s a strange thing to provide all the back story at the very end of the title’s run, but it’s definitely working here.  I’m still very happy to see original series artist Christopher Mitten back on board, just as I’m pleased to finally learn some of the secrets of A-Ree-Yas-I.

Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland #1 – I was going to pass on this latest Witchfinder mini-series, because it’s not written by Mike Mignola or one of his usual collaborators, but when I flipped through the book and saw Tyler Crook’s art, I couldn’t pass it up.  Sir Edward Grey’s latest adventures are being written by Kim Newman and Maura McHugh, neither of which are people I’ve heard of (apparently they write prose, presumably horror novels).  Grey has been sent to the English town of Hallam to investigate a strange murder wherein the victim was drowned in a local medicinal elixir.  At first, it doesn’t appear much like one of Grey’s usual cases, but as he digs a little deeper, and gets attacked by giant talking eels, it starts to make a lot more sense that he is there.  Crook’s art is wonderful in this book.  He renders a couple of pages like a comic from that era, and uses some bizarre visual effects to suggest that all is not on the up and up in this town.  I’m definitely going to stick around for the rest of this series.

Wolverine and the X-Men #5I’m really not understanding this series at all.  Jason Latour has a lot going on in this series, but I find the storyline incredibly hard to understand and follow.  Maybe I’m just not all that start, but instead I’m going to elect to believe that the writing is just disjointed and strange.  It might be time to cull the X- section of my pullfile.

X-Men #15 – Similarly, Brian Wood’s series is also becoming more and more disjointed.  This issue opens with The Future successfully taking Shogo away from Jubilee, and then the story shifts to a school office, where Storm plots out how she wants to proceed with this issue, although it soon becomes clear that this scene takes place before the preceding one, even though we are given no evidence of this through text boxes.  Later, The Future attacks the school and fights Jubilee in a scene that doesn’t really match with the one we’ve already seen.  Wood is an amazing writer, but I feel like he’s phoning it in on this book, and with the way he’s writing Storm, I’m wondering if he’s ever read other comics that feature her…

Comics I Would Have Bought If They Weren’t $4:

All-New Invaders #6

Amazing Spider-Man #1.2

Auteur #4

Captain Marvel #4

Dead Letter #3

Deadpool #30

Detective Comics #32

Edgar Allen Poe’s Morella and the Murders in the Rue Morgue One-Shot

Empty Man #1

Iron Man #28

Kill Shakespeare Mask of Night #1

Magnus Robot Fighter #4

Nightcrawler #3

Nova #18

Original Sins #1

Punisher #7

Red Sonja #10

Savage Wolverine #20

Silver Surfer #3

Thor God of Thunder #23

Uber #14

Uncanny X-Men Special #1

Unwritten Vol. 2 Apocalypse #6

Wolverine #8

Bargain Comics:

Strange Adventures #1-4 -It’s hard to resist a cheap run of a Vertigo anthology series from 1999, especially when it features work from such luminaries as Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Frank Quitely, Klaus Janson, Richard Corben, Brian Azzarello, Esad Ribic, and Danijel Zezelj.  There are some very good stories in here.

The Fortnight in Graphic Novels:

Batman: Death by Design

Written by Chip Kidd
Art by Dave Taylor
 

Having given up on the monthly (or weekly) grind of Bat-books does not take away the desire to read a well-constructed and plotted Batman story from time to time, and so I was quite happy to dive into Batman: Death by Design, an original graphic novel that is as (or more) concerned with visual aesthetic than character.

Chip Kidd is known for his design work, and so it makes sense that the Batman story he writes would be about architectural intrigue.  The story is set in a Gotham where people care about buildings and what they signify.  Bruce Wayne is in the process of replacing the Wayne Central Station, a hulking and beautiful building that was built with every possible corner cut, making it a danger to the commuters and tourists intended to pass through it.  Even though tearing the building down would involve erasing part of his father’s legacy for the city, Bruce sees the value in building a new station, one that he can place a secret transit hub for his alter ego beneath.

There are protests, and the demolition work is sabotaged, which leads to the Bat-Man having to investigate (I love when his name is spelled like this).  Soon, we begin to come across a character named Exacto, who is always around when something bad is going to happen, such as the collapse of The Ceiling, a new nightclub perched high atop Gotham’s streets (designed by Kem Roomhaus, which made me laugh).  Soon enough, we have a story with greedy union bosses, and even the Joker playing a role.

Dave Taylor provides the art for this book, and things look great.  His action sequences may appear a little stiff at times, but his eye for architectural detail is stunning, and his character work very nice.

I found that I really got into this book, although I don’t like the over-reliance on a ‘stasis field’ device to keep Bat-Man safe.  It was a little too convenient.

Red Light Properties

by Dan Goldman
 

Dan Goldman’s Shooting War really impressed me a couple of years back, so I decided to take a chance on picking up his new book, Red Light Properties, when I saw Goldman at TCAF this year.

The book is about a very unique real estate company in Miami, and is set at the height of the housing crisis of a few years ago.  Red Light Properties investigates and clears up dead housing stock that can’t be sold because its haunted.  Jude, their in-house exorcist, takes some drugs and communes with the spirits in the house, helping them to move on, while his assistant, Zoya, takes photographs that actually show the supernatural presence.  The actual real estate side of the business is run by Jude’s wife Cecilia.

It’s an interesting set up, but Goldman doesn’t really get into the ghostly side of things for a very long time, preferring to make this a book about Jude and Cecilia’s faltering marriage.  He’s recently been dumped to a basement apartment, as the couple plans of separating, due to Jude’s on-line activities.  He’s portrayed as a bit of a screw-up, but is also having a very hard time managing the stress that his job places on him.

Cecilia is a bit of a piece of work, and suspects that something is going on between Jude and Zoya.  Stuff happens, and the family suffers through these issues and financial pressure, all of which grounds the stranger side of the high concept.

Goldman is an interesting artist.  He uses a lot of photos for his background, and then photoshops in visual elements he’s drawn on the computer, like the family car.  The figures themselves are drawn on top of all of this, which sometimes looks really cool, and sometimes feels incredibly stiff.  The landscape format of the book leads to a few awkward panel lay-outs, as well as makes the book a little unwieldy to read.

I enjoyed this comic, and would definitely come back for the second volume, but at the same time, hope that the book is edited a little more rigorously, as there are a few places where speech balloons point to the wrong person, or where the dialogue feels very stiff.

Get in touch and share your thoughts on what I've written: jfulton@insidepulse.com