Best Comic of the Week:
X-Men Red #3 – Okay, this is well on the way to being my favourite of the X-titles right now. Al Ewing has an intricate plan for this book, and has a lot of moving parts. This issue focuses on Vulcan’s challenge against Tarn, as he tries to push his way into Arakkan leadership. Storm and Magneto’s brotherhood don’t want that to happen, though, and so they try to anticipate what Abigail Brand is up to. I feel like this book, being set on Arakko, has a lot more space and freedom to act independently of the Krakoan-based titles, and that gives Ewing more opportunity to do what he wants. This is all pretty interesting and fun. I’m happy to see characters like Sunspot, Thunderbird, Manifest, and Mentallo get treated seriously.
Quick Takes:
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #1 – Steve Roger’s new title starts off with him recommitting himself to living a proper life, although to do that he moves back into the apartment he was raised in, which is a little hard to believe, and starts jogging around Manhattan with his shield, showing little to no concern for the usual fears that cause heroes to maintain a secret identity. When the plot finally gets underway, it involves Cap talking to old friends on shortwave radio, and picking up a series of number clues that lead to an attack on the city during a Fourth of July parade. There’s just a few too many old school Cap tropes here, and I didn’t come away from this issue with a sense of purpose or direction. Writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing have been bouncing around for a while but I’m not all that familiar with their work. Artist Carmen Carnero does a fine job, but again, there’s nothing that sets her Cap apart just yet. I’ll give this an arc to see where it’s going, but I’m skeptical right now.
Farmhand #18 – This title just keeps getting darker, as the Jenkins family starts to pull apart from each other, and as Thorne’s disciples (puppets?) start to make their moves. I like what Rob Guillory is doing with this plant-based body horror series, but sometimes it can be disturbing.
Iron Man #20 – Comics romances can be weird, in that sometimes they last for ages without progressing, and at other times, it seems like people move from a date or two to proposal. That’s what happens here, when Tony Stark asks Patsy Walker to marry him in a letter when he’s just minutes out of rehab. I’m pretty sure those things are all red flags. Anyway, Tony starts his return to public life while waiting for his answer from Patsy, and that involves staging a chess match between a new Stark computer and a very smart guerrilla who yearns to leave academia for private industry. Typing all this out, I realize that this is a very strange issue, but since Angel Unzueta drew it in a very straight-forward, realistic way, everything seemed kind of reasonable throughout.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #24 – Beilert Valance finally returns to this book, although his scenes are not all that pivotal. The rest of the bounty hunter crew infiltrates the flagship of Crimson Dawn, led by Dengar, who is working the angles and getting paid by both sides in this conflict. This book is entertaining enough, but I realize that I don’t know the names of most of the characters, and that leaves me thinking it’s because Ethan Sacks hasn’t done enough to make me care about them.
Superman: Son of Kal-El #12 – Jon moves against Bendix, employing some help from Nightwing to bug Lex Luthor’s office, which in turn leads them towards a Senator in Bendix’s pocket. This series continues to be a very fun read, thanks to Tom Taylor, and I like how connected it is to the rest of the DC Universe, with guests in every issue.
Undiscovered Country: Destiny Man #1 – I told myself I was going to drop this title, but here I am picking up this one-off issue that helps shed some light on the story of the Destiny Man, the character previously believed to be the villain of the series. Very little of Undiscovered Country makes sense, but Scott Snyder and Charles Soule do keep things interesting. I feel like this issue connected a few dots, and now I’m considering picking up the next arc, which I’d stopped preordering.
Wolverine #22 – I feel my understanding of this series slipping further and further away, as Ben Percy gives us a ton of joke scenes involving Wolverine cutting Deadpool up, while a toy-sized version of Danger leads them and Maverick on a chase through Las Vegas. I’m not sure what is going on with this book right now, or what Percy is trying to do or say with it. I do like Adam Kubert’s art, but I’m quickly losing interest in this book.
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Bone Orchard Mythos: The Passageway
Moon Knight Black White & Blood #2
Bargain Comics:
Hardware Season One #1 – I’d meant to check out the rebirth of Milestone Comics before now, and then came across this issue in a cheap bin and thought it was time to check it out. Denys Cowan’s pencils and Bill Sienkiewicz’s inks are great, but Brandon Thomas’s story just repeats things I remember from the original Hardware (I read a trade in the last couple of years, I didn’t buy Milestone back in the day). I didn’t get all that drawn into the story, and don’t see myself returning for the rest of this story. The new Static looks good, though, so I might check that out.
In Memoriam:
Tim Sale – I heard earlier in the week that artist Tim Sale was ill, and had planned to write about him this week, and then learned that he’d passed. Sale was an incredible artist, who I first remember being aware of on the great Dark Horse miniseries Billi ‘99, with writer Sarah Byam. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, except that it was one of those titles that helped me transition to reading more independent comics. Sale also stood out on Matt Wagner’s Grendel, drawing the Grendel Khan era issues, which are my personal favourites in the original series run. I next remember seeing Sale’s work on Batman: The Long Hallowe’en, the thirteen issue holiday-themed series with Jeph Loeb. After that, Sale stayed associated with Loeb, and I stopped following much of his career (Jeph Loeb is my comics Nicholas Cage – if he’s involved, I stay as far away as possible, even if it deprives me of great art), but I did enjoy things like Queen & Country and his issue of Solo. Sale had a singular style that others have imitated, but never quite got right. I was always happy to see his name turn up on a book I was buying, and would like to express my condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and fans.
The Week in Music:
Poliça – Madness – I’m always excited to see a new Poliça album, especially since I’d heard that the band had called it quits during the pandemic. Poliça feels more stripped down than before, as songwriter/singer Channy Laneagh’s voice carries these songs more than before, when she would often get buried in the mix. Producer Ryan Olson has started experimenting with AI software (called AllOvers) that provides some odd sounds on many of these songs. I’ve always loved Channy’s voice, and am really happy with this album. I find that much of the Minneapolis music scene has gone quiet in the last two years, so seeing this band, whose members were key components of Marijana Deathsquads and Gayngs, still going strong, makes me happy.
T. Gowdy – Miracles – I just came across this electronic album randomly somehow, and found myself drawn into its atmospheric sonic constructions. It’s short, leaving me wanting more, but it’s also cerebral and pretty. I get Aphex Twin vibes a lot while listening to this. I was pleased to see that this is on a Montreal record label too!
Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jean Carne – Jazz is Dead 12 – It’s another entry in the Jazz is Dead series, and this time around, Muhammad and Younge are joined by the incredible Jean Carne, providing nice summer soulful jazz songs. It’s another great chapter in an incredible series. I think it’s weird that Vol. 12 has come out on disc ahead of Vol. 11, which reminds me of the Madlib Medicine Show towards the end.
Jazzanova – Strata Records: The Sound of Detroit, Reimagined by Jazzanova – I love the way current musicians keep revisiting and revamping some of the older classics. The three men who make up Jazzanova do that with the output of Strata Records, playing these songs from the 70s from a modern European perspective that really swings. It’s a good album.
