Best Comic of the Week:
That Texas Blood #18 – This book is getting increasingly creepy and disturbing, and I love it. This latest arc of That Texas Blood, a series set in a rural Texas county, centres around a serial killer known as the Red Queen Killer. Last issue, he spent a day at Lu’s house, but now Lu (the secretary at the Sheriff’s office) has brought her old friend, and the father of RQK’s latest victim, home with her. The cover captures a pivotal scene that made my blood go cold. Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips are doing incredible work with this book. By making the earlier arcs about Sheriff Joe Bob, in various stages of life, he’s gotten us invested in these characters and the town, so when someone like Lu is in danger like this, it’s much more effective than if she was a new character. This book is masterful.
Quick Takes:
AXE: Starfox #1 – I don’t love this new androgynous design for Starfox. I always found something so endearing about his old, rather hideous, outfit, and the way its yellow collar stood out as such an unnecessary feature. Anyway, Eros is now the Prime Eternal, and wants to figure out a way to save as many people as possible, as the Progenitor renders its judgment. I guess this is a good enough issue, but unless it means that Starfox is going to be sticking around somewhere, it feels like a bit of a tease.
AXE: X-Men #1 – Like with last week’s Avengers special, this really only focuses on one X-Man, Jean Grey, as she continues her assault against the Progenitor and in turn gets tested by him. Like most X-readers, I love Jean, but we’ve gone to the Phoenix/guilt well a few times too often, and it makes this issue feel a little paint-by-numbers. I do like Mister Sinister’s banter though, which is something I never would have expected. I think I’m ready for AXE to be finished…
Batman #128 – The fight against the Failsafe robot continues, with the Justice League coming to Bruce’s rescue, and getting taken apart. Chip Zdarsky has Bruce facing a robot that he designed to take himself down, and that’s maybe the hardest challenge he’s ever been confronted by. In the backup story, which has terrific artwork by Leonardo Romero, we see some of the history between Batman and the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh, which is kind of convoluted. This series is impressive, and Zdarsky is moving at a higher level than I would have expected. Jorge Jimenez is more than capable of handling anything that Zdarsky tosses at him to draw.
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #5 – I think it should be getting harder and harder to retcon shadowy organizations that have been around the Marvel Universe for decades, but never revealed until now. There are just a few too many of them. And the idea that one of them designed Captain America’s shield so it would be their symbol is kind of preposterous, as is adding another layer to Bucky Barnes’s time as the Winter Soldier, but here we are. Still and all, this is kind of entertaining.
Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 – As we move towards the endpieces of this event, the Justice League returns to confront Pariah while Nightwing gathers the largest group of Titans ever seen to take on Deathstroke and his army. It seems like both groups of heroes are likely to lose though, and the future of the restored but unstable Multiverse is looking dicey. I wish I knew if this series is leading into massive changes for the DCU or not, as I still am so desperately confused by DC continuity since New 52. I wish I could just relax and enjoy the stories for what they are, but so many things are confusing to me.
Gotham City: Year One #1 – Tom King and Phil Hester are giving us a Wayne family story from the early 1960s that appears to owe a bit to the Lindbergh kidnapping. Except this time, the baby is Helen Wayne, only daughter of Richard and Constance Wayne. Slam Bradley gets involved with the kidnapping situation when he’s paid to deliver a letter to Wayne Manor, and finds himself in the middle of a very strange case. King excels at this kind of story – it reminds me a little of the setup of his Rorschach series. There’s a racial aspect to this story, as we learn that the Waynes are putting a refinery in the middle of Gotham’s Black community. Hester is very good at this type of book (I love that when Constance walks down the central staircase, Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase is on the wall behind her. There’s a lot of intrigue in this issue, and it’s got me looking forward to the rest of this series. I also like that this is not involving either Thomas or Martha Wayne, although the timeline is a little curious (I guess that Helen is Thomas’s older sister?).
Kaya #1 – I’d actually thought I’d pass on this book, given that I’m trying to cut back on series a little, but then I flipped through it at the comics store, and realized that there was no way I was going to put it back. Wes Craig, fresh off Deadly Class (I guess, I mean there’s still one issue to come out), has launched his own series. Kaya is a young girl whose village was slaughtered, and now she has sworn to her dead uncle that she will protect her brother, Jin. As they travel across the wasteland where they live, they are discovered by some Lizard Riders, a reptilian race that wants to sell them into slavery. Luckily, there is one member of the hunting party that knows them and has a connection to their family. Craig packs a lot into this first issue. We get a sense of what’s happening in this world, and get a very good understanding of the dynamic between Kaya and Jin. Craig’s art is wonderful, and on this book he’s going with a more exaggerated and fantastic approach, making things feel very fresh. I’m going to be sticking around for the rest of this, I think.
Marauders #7 – Kate and her crew are able to restore the three mutants from Threshold, a world much older than any other civilization on Earth, and much of this issue is given over to learning their story. I’m not sure we need to retcon another ancient group of mutants – it’s that what Arakko is? – into the Marvel Universe, but here we are. I still question what Steve Orlando is trying to do with this series, as it is such a departure from what the Marauders were first brought together to do. Some of these Krakoan books are moving in strange directions these days.
Mind MGMT Bootleg #4 – I was a little concerned that this series, which revives Matt Kindt’s signature title, and has him collaborating with a variety of artists, was going to be over too quickly, and I think that was a valid concern. Kindt has some new agents, the Zanzibar Four, facing a new threat in this issue, and while it’s good (and beautifully illustrated by Jill Thompson), it’s over a little too quickly. Sure, he leaves the door open for a future miniseries, but given how intricate the first one was, I was expecting more.
X-Men Red #7 – This is a momentous issue. A very prominent character dies, having sworn off mutant resurrection, and it has to have some big repercussions across the X-line. Also, Storm and the surviving leaders of Arakko face Isca, whose mutant weapon is that she can’t lose. Al Ewing is playing with some very interesting concepts in this book, and still finding little spots to fit in some strong character moments. Stefano Caselli’s art is terrific (someone named Musabekov is credited on the cover, but I think this is Caselli’s art – it’s getting harder to tell). X-Men Red is tied with Immortal X-Men as my favourites of the Krakoan line.
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Ant-Man #4
Earthdivers Kill Columbus #1
Junkyard Joe #1
Miracleman #0
Night of the Ghoul #1
The Week in Music:
EABS – 2061 – There’s a lot of great jazz coming out of Europe these days. This Polish band can’t quite decide what kind of music they play – there’s some great broken beat jazz, a smattering of spiritual stuff, some free moments, and a rap song on here, but while the shifts in approach are broad, there’s a cohesive, slightly post-Apocalyptic vibe to all of this that stays coherent. I see in the liner notes that this was recorded at a jazz club in Warsaw, and I imagine that (if it was open to the public) it would have been fun to be there.
William Orbit – The Painter – William Orbit has gathered a nice collection of songs and instrumental tracks that demonstrate his skills and aesthetic very nicely. There’s a good variety of vocalists such as Beth Orton, Ali Love, Polly Scattergood, and my hero Lido Pimienta contributing to tracks, and a very cool piece that makes use of African rhythms. This is a solid album.
