The Weekly Round-Up #577 With Tartarus #8, Department of Truth #4, Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #8, Grendel, Kentucky #4 & More Plus The Week In Music!

Columns, Top Story

Best Comic of the Week:

Tartarus #8 – Ten years pass over the course of this issue, as Surka puts her plan into action to get back home to Tartarus.  It’s just that her plan involves her first taking control of the solar system she’s found herself in.  Her new partner, Svantoo, is a lot more than he seems at first, and might be as reluctant as we are led to believe.  I love how Johnnie Christmas has built this arc, which takes us into very unexpected territory, and makes it clear that there is a lot planned for this series that is still to come.  It’s another of my current favourite comics.

Quick Takes:

Department of Truth #4 – I’m really glad that I decided to stick with this series, as it gets ever darker and bleaker.  This issue has a reporter who has been sent twelve folders from Black Hat, the mysterious organization that works at cross purposes to the Department.  These folders lay out an alternative recent history of the United States that helps to unify some of the wilder and stranger stories of the last sixty years, linking JFK’s death to Obama’s birth, right through the conspiracies central to Qanon.  I was a little surprised to see writer James Tynion IV lean into this stuff so heavily, and I worry that there is a small percentage of people who will end up believing in the material in this book.  I’m really enjoying this book, which is much more intricate than I’d expected.  It reminds me of Grant Morrison’s Invisibles, if that book were played a lot straighter.  It’s very cool.

Doctor Doom #10 – This series had some ups and downs, for which I blame the pandemic and the long delay in the series, plus what I consider was a decrease in the planned length of the title, but the last two issues have been fantastic.  Writer Christopher Cantwell has such a good handle on Doom, much more so than he does Tony Stark (he’s currently also writing Iron Man, which has yet to be as good as most of this series was).  This issue has Doom meeting himself, but in a parallel universe where Victor spearheaded programs of peace and prosperity that have spread throughout the galaxy.  Our Doom, being who he is, can’t help but react with jealousy and rage, but there’s a taut sequence where you think he might actually change.  It’s good stuff.

Dune: House Atreides #3 – I’m enjoying this prequel series, but I’ve come to realize that this is not likely to have a single long storyline, but instead, is giving us a look at what each of the main characters of the early novels were up to about ten years before that story was told.  I guess that’s why they need twelve issues to tell this story…  Even though it’s a little stiff, I do find it a good read, and it works as good prep for the new Dune film, if I ever get to see it.

Family Tree #10 – The pace of this series has been picking up a lot, as we see how Josh and his mom met the girl who would grow up to be Josh’s wife, and in the future part of the story, get a better idea of how they’ve been living, and how they have prepared for the threat they are facing now.  I wish this book was a little less decompressed, as each issue feels very slight, but I enjoy it.

Gideon Falls #27 – I didn’t realize that this last issue would be oversized and double-priced, but I think that was a very good decision.  This series has always felt pretty decompressed, so getting the end of the story in a big thick chunk made it work a lot better.  Norton, his family, and the allies they’ve picked up along the way come together to confront the entity that has been chasing them across a number of realities.  I’ve never been too clear on everything that’s been going on in this title, but Jeff Lemire’s confusing plotting has provided plenty of spaces for artist Andrew Sorrentino to really shine.  He excels at unconventional layouts and big, odd double-page spreads, and the extended length of this issue really provided him with space to go wild.  

Grendel, Kentucky #4 – I liked this horror story set in 1970s Kentucky.  If you’ve read Beowulf (or, if you’re currently reading Once & Future), you know that killing Grendel is not enough; next, you have to deal with his mother.  After the mother rampaged through the various bikers and drug dealers that worked to kill the creature last issue, we are left with just Marnie, having to enter the mine and deal with the beast once and for all.  This series was pretty cool, and had terrific art from Tommy Lee Edwards, who really needs to draw more books.  AWA is putting itself on the map this year.

Oblivion Song #29 – The Kuthaal invasion of Earth is underway, and they show very early on that conventional military weapons are not much of a threat at all.  It looks like it’s all up to Nathan again.  You can tell that Robert Kirkman is building to something big, with next issue closing off this arc.  Oblivion Song has stayed an exciting read since its debut, and shows no signs of slowing down.  It’s one of my favourite comics right now.

Outcast #47 – We’ve almost reached the end of Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta’s long-running series.  This issue is oversized, and features the Great Merging, as the entities possessing people make one more attempt to control Kyle Barnes.  It’s a big issue, and it more or less feels like the end of things.  I assume the next issue will be mostly a wrap-up, but then, Kirkman is known for misdirecting and surprising readers, so who knows?  Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing how this all ends.

The Scumbag #3 – Hilarity continues as Earl Ray tries in his own way to deal with the bomb that will turn everything gold, meets his new bosses, and is given a new mission.  Eric Powell drew this issue, and it looks very good.  It seems with every issue, Rick Remender leans further into the political satire of this series, suggesting that it wasn’t the original plan.  This book is pretty funny.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #8 – A new arc starts with Valance still on the run, facing betrayal, and owing a debt to the Rebel Alliance from the last arc.  I like how this dovetails nicely with what’s happening in the main Star Wars book right now, but I’m still struggling to care a whole lot about Valance himself (although I liked him a lot more in the Target Vader miniseries, so I’m starting to think that this might be writer Ethan Sacks’s fault).

Undiscovered Country #11 – All the truths of the Unity sector of the United States are laid bare, and our heroes, each of whom are searching for different things, learn that they are required to choose a sector, and the woman who runs Unity thinks they should choose her.  This is one of the more coherent of these issues so far, as the series is finally taking shape.  I’m interested still, but cautiously so.

USAgent #2 – I love Christopher Priest’s writing, and the way he can take what might be a mostly straight-forward storyline, and make it kaleidoscopic and confusing.  John Walker has long been a difficult character to make interesting, but by tossing his younger sister, who is working to protect a secret ex-SHIELD installation, into the mix, Priest opens up all kinds of new possibilities.  I can’t think of the last time a Marvel comic was set in West Virginia, so that’s something too.  I’m happy this exists, but I also wish Marvel would give Priest an ongoing title again (I miss his Deathstroke at DC).

Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:

Excalibur #16

Firefly Blue Sun Rising #1

King in Black #2

Notable This Week:

This week I was fortunate enough to receive in the mail the three mini-comics recently published by TKO Studios, a premier new publisher.  Everything I’ve read from TKO so far has been incredible, in terms of quality of the story and art, as well as production values, so I was excited to check out this new format.  TKO Shorts, as they are being called, are thirteen pages of story, and a few pages of sketches, and are slightly smaller in size than a standard comic.  

Seeds of Eden – This story is written by Liana Kangas and Joe Corallo (I don’t know them) and drawn by the excellent Paul Azaceta.  It’s a Twilight Zone style story about a woman, clearly modelled on Sigourney Weaver, who travels to the terraforming colony on Jupiter she’s worked to design.  She’s there to inspect it before settlers start moving in, and discovers that the AI has interpreted her instructions perhaps a little too literally.  It’s a solid horror story that had me thinking about technology and unintended consequences, and how programmers’ biases and world view might lead to unexpected results.  It’s very good, and Azaceta is as great as always (it’s nice to see him working on something other than Outcast).  This is a strong minicomic, and has me interested in seeking out more from these authors (about the author write-ups would have been nice).

The Father of All Things – This was the book that caught my attention first, as I’ve always been a sucker for a World War One story.  Georg lied about his age, and joined up with the German army at 14, expecting that things would be much more exciting and glorious than the slog that became the Western Front.  When Georg notices a tunnel leading from a trench into the ground, things get much crazier than he expected, as this book moves from the horrors of war into a different type of horror story.  Sebastian Girner, whose The Devil’s Red Bride is impressing me right now, wrote this book, and Baldemar Rivas drew the hell out of it.  Another winner.

Night Train – This short, by writer Seve Foxe and artist Lisandro Estherren, is actually pretty disturbing.  A ten-year-old boy is struggling to adjust to having a new baby brother, especially as his mother struggles to recover from complications of childbirth, his father has to work, and the overhead elevated train competes with the crying baby to keep everyone awake.  When the chance comes to get some peace and quiet, by letting the child ride a ghostly train, what would you do?  This gets kind of creepy and dark, and I love it. 

The Week in Music:

Atmosphere – The Day Before Halloween – It says a lot about how long it takes to get physical copies of music these days, when The Day Before Halloween arrives on the day before Christmas.  Atmosphere are giants of the independent hip hop world, with a long and proud career.  They’ve managed to stay relevant by always trying new things, then returning to the tried and true.  This is one of their most experimental projects, with Ant providing Slug with some minimalist, dark beats.  Slug experiments with modulating his vocals on some tracks, yet his trademark flow comes through strong as always.  On the first two listens, I find this intriguing, and know it’s something I’m going to want to spend more time with.

Tino Contreras – La Noche de los Dioses – Tino Contreras is 96 years old, but still swinging on this new album, released on Brownswood.  Contreras plays as hard as ever on this album, cementing his place in the Mexican jazz scene, and jazz as a whole.  There are some lovely pieces here.

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