Best Comic of the Week:
The Brother of All Men #1 – I’m always going to take a good look at anything written by Zac Thompson (or his frequent partner, Lonnie Nadler), but an interwar series about a commune in British Columbia that’s being investigated by a war vet missing half of his face? This series checks a lot of boxes for me, and I’m instantly fascinated by it. Guy, our vet who wears a shield covering the place where his right eye and side of his face used to be, is searching for a missing woman, who just happens to have been photographed with his brother, who is also missing, and a mysterious man. Guy has crossed the country looking for them, and when he ends up in Vancouver, he knows there’s not many places left to look. It soon becomes apparent that people know about his quarry, but are afraid to get involved. By happenstance, Guy ends up receiving an invitation to join the Aquarian Brotherhood, the spiritualist community run by Brother XII, and when he goes to check them out, he discovers his brother, who doesn’t recognize him. There are a lot of questions raised in this first issue, and Thompson handles the pace of the issue masterfully. The art by Eoin Marron is realistic and kind of grizzled, like many of the people in this comic. I’ve often been curious about the history of spiritualism in Canada (many of the Group of Seven, our most celebrated artists, were Theosophists), and love that there are solid historical underpinnings to this book. I’m thankful that Aftershock is publishing stuff like this, because it fills a very small, very particular void.
Quick Takes:
Alien Annual #1 – This story is a prequel of sorts for the first Marvel Alien run, which is already being rebooted and returning to the story from that first arc. This is another pretty solid issue that relies on all of the Alien tropes – a crew on a ship with a single xenomorph onboard, an untrustworthy artificial person, and company greed. It features Gabriel Cruz, the character that was at the centre of that first story arc. I don’t understand how or why he’d have kept working for his company after what happens here, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Salvador Larroca is so good at barely showing us the xenomorph, making it so much creepier than when they’re running around everywhere.
AXE: Judgment Day #1 – I’m glad that I’ve been keeping up on Eternals and the vast majority of the X-Men titles, because this event depends a lot on what’s happened in all of those comics to be fully understood (I don’t think it’s as necessary for the Avengers, although I realize I don’t know who a couple of them are now). Kieron Gillen has Druig, the leader of the Eternals, wanting to satisfy one of his prime directives, and wipe out all mutants as examples of excessive deviance (something, Gillen has established, Eternals are hard-wired to do). Of course, he’s mostly looking for this as a way to consolidate his power among his own people. To that end, he launches attacks on Krakoa (Moira MacTaggert has given him the secrets of The Five, the mutants responsible for maintaining mutant resurrection) and Arakko (sending Uranos, for one hour). The mutants scramble to figure out how to respond to this unexpected aggression, while the Avengers meet with Sersi, who is part of a splinter group, to figure out what’s going on. Gillen juggles a lot of stuff in this issue quite well, while artist Valerio Schiti has to draw dozens of people, and manages to pull it off beautifully. This event has a fair amount of sprawl, but given the tight coordination of the X-Men titles already, and that Gillen is writing most of the key tie-ins, I am hopeful that it will work better than most similar events do.
Black Adam #2 – It’s not going to surprise anyone who has read my columns for a while, and has read me raving about Priest’s writing, but I loved this issue. Adam is dying, and has chosen a descendant to pass on his powers to, creating White Adam, who is a med student named Malik that has no interest in any of this. It’s kind of a classic Priest set-up, reminding me of when Kaspar Cole got the mantle of the White Panther in his classic Black Panther run. We also get a few other Priest tropes, in the form of a government agent close to Adam, and a CIA operative he has a flirtatious relationship with. I’d say that this book, so far at least, is less complex than the typical Priest story, but the potential for things to get very confusing is definitely there.
Defenders Beyond #1 – Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez return with their oddball approach to Defenders stories. Now, with Dr. Strange dead, a spell he left behind contacts Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel, to tell him about a new threat from outside of reality. The spell attempts to put together a new Defenders team using the same mystic Tarot set that Strange used, but this is not exactly how Brashear wants to handle things. Soon enough, we have our team, consisting of America Chavez, Taaia, a previous incarnation of Loki (from when Ewing wrote their book), and Tigra. Another character shows up at the end of the issue, but it’s a bit of a surprise, unless you read the title of this book carefully. I like the way Ewing is revisiting his earlier comics (he also wrote the Mighty Avengers and Ultimates series that featured Brashear and Chavez), while still exploring the concepts behind the cosmic reboot that came with Secret Wars (which was never really mentioned much except in his comics). Rodriguez is a fun artist for a book like this, with great panel layouts and strong character work. I got a little lost and bored with the last Defenders series, but I think this one is already off to a better start and is going to keep my interests more.
Farmhand #19 – This is one intense issue, as Thorne makes her move, which means she wants the corpse of Ezekiel’s mother, who has been dead for years. This issue shows an escalation in just how wild Thorne’s people can get (there’s a gigantic plant woman carrying child assassins around like she’s a kangaroo), and in the general level of tension and violence in this title. Rob Guillory continues to surprise me with this book, making it unpredictable and very compelling.
Flash #784 – Wally, Wallace, and their extended family are searching three different worlds for Barry Allen, and each group has found some version of him. Jesse Quick and Max Mercury are in a Mad Max style world, while Wally’s kids have ended up in a dark place where the Flash is more of a Batman figure. Wally and Wallace, meanwhile, have stumbled on a ziptoned world with a bit of a Norman Rockwell aesthetic. It’s a good issue, but I have to admit that I’m hoping at the end of the day, this book stays Wally’s, and Barry gets left behind somewhere.
Iron Man #21 – Chris Cantwell is moving on from the Korvac and Hellcat storylines (Patsy doesn’t even get mentioned this issue, which is odd considering Tony proposed to her last issue – and yes, I know that the Annual addressed their relationship, but he moves on quickly). Tony is now interested in looking into a black market weapons supplier, and it sounds like an interesting direction for this book to take. I have a lot of problems with the plotting of this issue though. Tony’s on his way out to see an old friend/colleague who has been calling him. He decides to fly a commercial airline, and his plane just happens to be hijacked by a villain, who wants to steal weapons plans from some other guy on the plane. The hijacker just happens to work for the same organization that Tony’s old friend works for? There are way too many coincidences in this issue, unless all of this is some sort of elaborate supervillain scheme (which would still depend on knowing that Tony wouldn’t just fly his armor across the country). I feel like Cantwell is completely uninterested in having Tony use his Iron Man armor. Last issue had it hacked by a very smart gorilla. This issue has it pierced by a bit of adamantium, leaving Tony stuck in a hole. Cantwell writes him as a very weak character, and it doesn’t track. Angel Unzueta’s art, on the other hand, is fantastic, but when Cantwell puts constraints on Tony, it puts constraints on Unzueta too; he never gets to really show what he can do. I’m hoping that the next few issues provide a little more context to this storyline.
Justice League Vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #4 – We’re four issues, and almost a year into this project, and we still have no idea what the nature of the Great Darkness, a cross-temporal threat that has the LSH and JL working together (not against each other, as the title would suggest) to try to save all of time. Brian Michael Bendis is terrific at writing character interactions, but he’s proven over and over that his event-like books can never stick their landing. I loved his LSH series, and am happy to see these characters again, but it’s becoming clear that there is little or no plan for this book. Why have Ultra Boy and Aquaman travel through time together, if we’re going to see none of it? Why feature guest appearances from characters like Batman Beyond, Kamandi, and Alan Scott if they aren’t going to do anything? It feels like Bendis is throwing things at the wall again, and it’s frustrating, especially since the book is actually good on a micro level. The characters are fun to read. Scott Godlewski’s art is phenomenal, as he captures each character as an individual. I just can’t see any kind of big picture here, and can already imagine that there will have to be a Justice League Vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes follow-up, because Bendis doesn’t yet have an ending in mind.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #40 – Miles and his Days of Future Past crew continue in their mission to rescue Uncle Aaron from Selim. This is pretty much an all-action issue, as we move towards the finale of this current arc. It’s a good issue.
Nightwing #94 – Dick and his allies start making moves to clean up Blüdhaven, specifically targeting the corrupt police commissioner. This leads to problems for Mayor Zucco, when Blockbuster starts hunting down who in his crew might be leaking information. This issue moves the larger story forward quite a bit, as Tom Taylor and Geraldo Borges focus less on guest stars, and more on the core of this book. It’s always a good read.
The Silver Coin #12 – Guest writer Stephanie Phillips joins artist Michael Walsh to take the coin to the Second World War, where it falls into the hands of a fresh American recruit who has yet to kill anyone. A night’s watch in a remote and very cold forest leads to what’s become some standard Silver Coin horror. It’s good, and I’m always down for a solid war story, but it’s time to try some new stuff with this before there becomes a standard approach to these stories.
Star Wars #25 – It’s a little odd that for this issue, Charles Soule’s 100th Star Wars script, he broke the regular-sized comic into four stories, revisiting his previous Star Wars series. We get a story featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin, which is mirrored by a Palpatine and Vader story. From there, we get a Kylo Ren story, and then a Poe Dameron one. Each of them are decent, and it’s always nice to see some Phil Noto art, but this book has been on quite a roll lately, and I feel like this is drawing away momentum.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #25 – Vader continues his crusade against a corrupt Governor who is working for both the Empire and Crimson Dawn. This issue increases the tension between Ochi and Sabé, and has a few scenes of Vader looking very cool. Rafaelle Ienco has a great feel for how to make Vader more deadly and foreboding than other artists do.
Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca #4 – Much of this issue is given over to a fight between Chewbacca and Krrsantan, which must have been fun to plan out. Krrsantan has taken Solo to the vacation home of the man he stole an urn from, but Chewbacca and the man who might be Solo’s father are able to follow, leading to this fight and poorly planned rescue. This series has been enjoyable, and I like David Messina’s art, but I did find the first few pages to be kind of confusing, like some of the panels were out of sequence. When most of the issue is in Shyriiwook, it’s important that the art carries the storytelling mostly on its own (although I guess I know how Chewie says ‘yes’ now), and that didn’t exactly happen at the start of this issue.
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Avengers #58
Dark Spaces: Wildfire #1
Moon Knight: Black White & Blood #3
Bargain Comics:
Getting It Together #1-4 – I really enjoyed this miniseries about twenty-somethings trying to figure out their lives in San Francisco. It’s written by Omar Spahi and Sina Grace (of Iceman fame), and drawn by Jenny Fine (and sometimes Grace). The characters are all kind of likeable, while being difficult with one another. Lauren is the main character – her band is starting to blow up, but she’s unhappy in it, and in her relationship after she cheated on her boyfriend with her bass player. Her brother is her roommate, and is also her boyfriend’s best friend, which makes her life a lot more complicated. Everyone undergoes a bit of a journey of self-discovery, and while it’s familiar ground, it still works very well. The art is lovely, and the character work is great. I’d happily read another volume if it were to come along.
The Week in Graphic Novels:
Bone Orchard: The Passageway – Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino have been collaborating for years now, making their partnership as productive as Brubaker and Phillips. Now they’ve decided to launch a series of interconnected, shared universe stories under the Bone Orchard Mythos title. The first of these comics (other than the FCBD standalone story) is this hardcover graphic novel. A geologist with a fear of water is brought to a small island, which has only a lighthouse on it, because a hole has opened up that seems to be endlessly deep. The lighthouse keeper is an odd woman who claims she hasn’t left this barren island in over twenty years. Lemire lets the story spin out along familiar horror lines, giving the story a real Stephen King vibe. Sorrentino keeps things constrained until we get to exploring the hole, and then he gets to play with layout in ways that reminded me of some parts of Gideon Falls, the last big series these two worked on together. This is a beautiful and creepy book that had me intrigued, but that ultimately ended up being too quick a read given its price. I’m not sure where this project is going, but I have preordered the first miniseries, set to be released soon, and I think I’ll prefer that format over the stand alone OGN.
Hawkman Vol. 1: Awakening – I was curious about Robert Venditti and Bryan Hitch’s Hawkman when it first came out, but held off on checking it out until now. That was a mistake, it seems, as they work to unify the various versions of the character over the years, and introduce the concept that he has been reincarnated many more times than even he knew, including once having lives on Rann and Krypton. There is an ancient threat on its way, and Carter Hall is drawn through time and space to the locations of some of her previous lives, picking up clues along the way. Venditti is respectful of previous work done with this character, without feeling the need to explain everything. Hitch has not missed a step, and this is as vibrant as any of his earlier, bigger-name books. I think I need to go get the second volume now…
