The Weekly Round-Up #601 With Far Sector #12, Oblivion Song #31, Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #13, X-Men #21 & More Plus The Week In Music!

Columns, Top Story

Best Comic of the Week:

Far Sector #12 – I’m sad to see this series come to an end.  I’ve really enjoyed NK Jemisin’s exploration of the City Enduring through the eyes of Jo Mullein, the latest Green Lantern from Earth.  Jemisin’s world building was incredible, with the City being portrayed as an endless complex society that is being shaken to its core by revolutionary ideas around the emotion exploit that all citizens take to keep their world stable.  More than that, though, this hard science fiction series explores issues of policing on Earth, and the challenges in Jo’s life in a way that is novel and very effective.  Jamal Campbell’s art is lovely throughout this series, and really breathes life into the City and its inhabitants.  I’m left wanting to read more about Jo (I know she’s in the new Green Lantern series Geoffrey Thorne is writing, but the first issue didn’t exactly grab me).  I don’t often think of Green Lanterns as cops, so I like the way Jemisin explored that aspect of them a little, and how she set up a few potential future storylines for her to return to (I really hope she does).  I see that this series is up for an Eisner this year, and I think it’s highly deserving.  This was a great read.

Quick Takes:

Die #17 – The party confronts the shade of HP Lovecraft, and learns the truth about the Fallen, the zombie-like characters that are around every corner in Die.  This book is moving towards something big, and it stays interesting while doing it.  I love that the characters in this series are so fleshed out, but also not all that likeable.  I’m not sure I’m rooting for any of them.

Iron Man #9 – I’m quickly losing interest in this series.  This issue is the second in a row without Tony Stark, as Korvac heads to a remote planet to recruit the original Human Torch, the android Jim Hammond, who has been stuck in an Iron Man body since the recent Invaders series, to his cause.  Jim is an often mis-handled character, and it seems that Cantwell wants to set him right here, but I found that it just didn’t really hold my attention.  Something needs to happen in this story, and quickly.  Cantwell’s Doctor Doom was so good, but I’m not feeling the same way about Iron Man.

Oblivion Song #31 – This is another big issue, as the Kuthaal swap three cities on Earth for their own facilities on Oblivion.  Our heroes hatch a few plans to deal with this, including sending Nate and his new Ghozan allies to Oblivion to try to get the Earth cities back before everyone in them is slaughtered.  It’s another exciting issue that ends with another unpredictable twist.  This series has been entertaining from the jump, and just keeps ratcheting things up as it approaches its conclusion.

Rorschach #9 – Our nameless protagonist goes to the farmhouse where Myerson and the kid planned their assassination.  It looks like he finally gets a big break in the case, uncovering a potential link to politics.  This series is slowly simmering on the pot, and doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of buzz, but it’s very good in that Tom King formalist way.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #13 – Valance and Dengar continue their hunt for Han Solo, and come across Chewbacca and C-3PO at the same time.  The main storyline in this book is fine, but I’m having trouble remembering who a lot of these secondary characters are.

X-Men #21 – The Hellfire Gala continues, and we finally get to see the new X-Men lineup (which, if I’m being honest, isn’t all that impressive).  This issue has a few artists, and it was great to see Nick Dragotta reunite with Jonathan Hickman for a few pages.  I miss their East of West, and enjoyed Dragotta’s bizarre choice of outfit for Magneto.  This issue felt a little disjointed, but I guess it’s mostly just set-up for the Planet-Sized special next week.  

Bargain Comics:

Suicide Squad #1-11 – I regret not supporting this version of the Squad, by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo (mostly) as it came out.  Taylor’s proven himself to be very good at writing superhero stories that have a different kind of edge to them, and Redondo’s art is very nice.  This Squad really shook things up compared to the more traditional approach.  Amanda Waller was out, and the only team members regularly associated with the team were Deadshot and Harley Quinn.  Instead, a group who call themselves the Revolutionaries got pressed into working for Task Force X, and then led a revolt against it.  The new characters in this book are great – they remind me a bit of the Authority, and I hope we get to see more of them in the future.  The end of this series felt rushed, probably because of DC’s Infinite Frontier plans, but I’m hoping that these new characters exist somewhere still, and will come back.  I also now understand why Deadshot is not appearing in the latest Suicide Squad, which I’ve started buying (and now realize is nowhere near as good as this version).

The Week in Music:

Menagerie – Many Worlds – I’m always in the mood for more spiritual jazz, and like this album that’s come from Australia.  I know nothing about this band, but they sound great.

Amanda Whiting – After Dark – Keeping in that spiritual jazz vein, this is a beautiful and soulful jazz album built around Whiting’s transcendent harp music.  Most every release on Jazzman Records is worth your time, and this is no exception.

Gogo Penguin – GGP/RMX – This is a collection of remixes from Gogo Penguin’s recent self-titled album.  It has eleven new takes on their work that bring the spacey jazz trio into realms of drum and bass and other forms of techno.  The remixes are by people like Machinedrum, Squarepusher, Clark, 808 State, and former label mates Portico Quartet.  It’s not the most cohesive thing I’ve ever heard, but as a fan of both types of sound, I like this.

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