Best Comic of the Week:
Resident Alien: Your Ride’s Here #6 – This did not end as I’d expected. I’ve been a fan of Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s Resident Alien since it began, and perhaps should have known better than to predict the ending. Harry is an alien who has been trapped on Earth for decades. He’s made a life for himself as a small town doctor, surrounded by a group of friends, and he solves the occasional mystery. It’s a fantastic set up, but since the series of miniseries began, there’s been an ongoing plot thread involving the government’s attempts to track down the alien they know exists. Now, Harry is confronted by the agent who has tracked him down, just as his people finally return for him. This has been a great read from the beginning, and I hope we get to see Harry and his friends again someday. At the same time, this arc ended very nicely.
Quick Takes:
Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey #6 – Matt Wagner has been using this series to have the Grendel-Prime explore a number of different worlds, looking for a place to try to restore humanity. Now he’s on a Medieval world that he hopes to socially engineer away from its barbaric methods of solving conflicts. I really enjoy these issues, and love Wagner’s art in this book. It’s too bad that there’s only two issues remaining.
Guardians of the Galaxy #14 – The Guardians face two threats – a massive Skrull-led cult on the edge of space, and an attack by Doctor Doom on Hala. Al Ewing is building towards another big event in this series, and while I wish we’d had a little more time to investigate the team’s new status quo before diving into all of this new craziness, this book is a good ride. I was definitely happier with Juann Cabal’s art, but still, this is a solid read.
Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe #1 – Bad Idea is all about taking good comics and burying them under a ton of gimmicks and baroque attention-seeking promotions. This slim comic, sold for just $1, is by Robert Venditti and David Lapham, and contains a short story about a pizza business’s in-house private detective. I get the feeling that this book’s title was put together as a joke, and then the comic was written afterwards. It’s not bad, and Lapham’s always wonderful, but it doesn’t exactly stake out new ground. I also found that the printing of the black and white pages was inconsistent, with some pages looking grey and washed out. An equal amount of space is given to a comic by Matt Kindt and Tomas Giorello. I think it’s a preview of an upcoming series, but that’s not made clear. I feel like this was originally put together as a potential Free Comic Book Day offering, and then the people at Bad Idea decided to make it available for sale instead, but only for one day (I told you their promotions are excessively complicated). I just don’t see the point of it all, really.
Rorschach #8 – Tom King and Jorge Fornés indulge in some highly formalistic storytelling this month, as the investigator interviews three associates of Will Myerson about a ranch he rented before trying to assassinate the Presidential candidate. Each interview takes up a third of each page, with a subtly separate colour scheme. The end of each interrogation makes this whole issue something of a mobius strip, which is very cool. I like this series a lot, but never find it exciting. It’s a very well-executed exploration of the world Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created, but also works on its own as a bizarre procedural. The wildest thing about it is the continued presence of comics legend Frank Miller as a supporting character.
The Silver Coin #2 – Kelly Thompson wrote this issue, which has the mysterious silver coin turn up at a kid’s summer camp where a girl is being bullied by her bunkmates. Thompson leans into a lot of horror movie tropes, and gives us an entertaining issue. I like how artist Michael Walsh is working with different writers for every issue of this series; it’s a pretty cool concept, and allows for a lot of different stories, with just one common element.
Star Wars #13 – This prelude issue to the War of the Bounty Hunters features Luke, Chewbacca, and the droids on a mission to track down Boba Fett that follows closely on last week’s WotBH Alpha issue. Ramon Rosanas’s art looks better than ever in this issue, and he draws and excellent Luke. Actually, everything clicks in this issue. Charles Soule’s Star Wars has been kind of inconsistent, but I have high hopes for this crossover event. I also think it’s cool that he brought back a minor character from the Solo movie for this.
X-Corp #1 – I was intrigued by the idea of a miniseries focusing on the corporate side of the Krakoan nation, specifically X-Corp, as run by Angel and M (who is now officially going by Penance?). I found this issue to be disjointed and kind of confusing. Warren and Monet don’t seem to agree on much, and it’s not all that clear just what X-Corp is supposed to be doing. I thought that Hellfire took care of the pharmaceutical business, but here X-Corp is managing a lab in the Savage Land. Warren enters into negotiations with a businessman, but I’m not entirely sure what his deal is. He wants to be paid more for an arrangement that was already completed, and in order to save Warren (from nothing more than implied danger), Monet flies their company’s massive island headquarters to Brazil. I’m happy to see that Trinary is being used in this book, and am usually pleased to see Madrox show up in a book, but I don’t really understand what the purpose is here. I felt much the same about Tini Howards’s Excalibur, and dropped it pretty quickly. I’m hoping that the next issue (which I think has to do with the Hellfire Gala) will get this book on a clear path.
X-Factor #9 – So apparently the next issue of this book will be the last? I did see that Leah Williams is writing one of the as-yet unannounced new X-titles, but I still think this is a shame. I’ve been enjoying this book more than most of the other Krakoan titles, and love that she’s given such prominence to characters who are usually secondary or background characters. This issue does tie up a few loose ends, as the team confronts the Morrigan, and also has some dealings in the Mojoverse. The whole Mojoverse sequence feels very rushed and a bit unclear, which makes sense only in the context of this book needing to be wrapped up during the Hellfire Gala. I’ve noticed that a lot of these titles have sporadic shipping schedules, and am starting to see some cracks forming in the X-line.
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Batman: The Detective #2
Batman: Urban Legends #3
Children of the Atom #3
Fantastic Four #32
Justice League: Last Ride #1
The Week in Music:
Alfa Mist – Bring Backs – Alfa Mist is part of the beat-oriented English jazz scene, and has dropped one of the prettiest albums of the year so far. His keys play over his beats, and this album weaves in a sense of spiritual jazz, and lovely spoken word poetry. This is a great album to vibe out to.
Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Haram – I’ve been a fan of Alchemist’s beats for almost as long as I can remember, but he’s really been having a moment the last couple of years (his release with Freddie Gibbs was a favourite last year). It makes a lot of sense that he’s teamed up with Armand Hammer for this album (Armand Hammer and Elucid and Billy Woods, two incredible rappers with impressive solo careers). Alchemist brings them a more polished sound than the types of beats they usually rhyme over, and in turn, they bring their A-game, with dense and thought-provoking lyrics. I love that none of these artists are slowing down, and that they are so consistently stunning.
