Best Comic of the Week:
Spy Superb #1 – Matt Kindt is back with a new series he’s both writing and drawing, which is the best way to enjoy his mind. Once again, we have a story about spies – this time, the ‘Spy Superb’, a super-agent that’s been around since the Second World War. Except, he hasn’t been. This is an interesting take on an old character type, as the latest ‘Spy Superb’ turns up dead before beginning his mission, and his handler has to scramble to find a replacement. Kindt gives us a good character study story, as well as a fun approach to an old and familiar genre. His art is fantastic, as always, and the backup story provides some necessary context. This is a 48 page comic, so we get lots of space for the story to unfold.
Quick Takes:
Batman #131 – At the end of the last arc, the Failsafe robot blasted Batman with a strange gun. Now we learn that has moved him to another world in the Multiverse, where Harvey Dent is a Judge in the Judge Dredd style, and Bruce has to figure out what’s going on and how to get home. It’s kind of standard stuff, and to be honest, I’d expected something more from Chip Zdarsky, but I also know to trust him and see where he’s headed with this. Mike Hawthorne is a good choice of artist for this story. The backup story is focused on Tim, and the lengths he’s going to to try to recover Bruce. Zdarsky is one of the biggest writers in comics now, and it’s always cool to see how his approach to Batman differs from his approach to Daredevil.
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #8 – Cap and his group have all lost five days and been scattered around the heartland while AIM has moved in and taken over Manhattan. This issue is a bit confusing – if AIM knows that they moved Cap, why are they sending operatives to his apartment to kill him? And why aren’t other superheroes doing anything to stop AIM? Things aren’t really making enough sense to me, as has been an issue I’ve had with this entire run. I like the ideas that Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly are playing with here, but it still doesn’t quite work for me. I saw that these writers are slated for the next Guardians of the Galaxy series, and that leaves me a little worried about it as well. Usually, I’d be really happy to see the Invaders name turning up again, but this doesn’t capture the feel I’d usually be looking for.
Damn Them All #3 – Simon Spurrier and Charlie Adlard have this new series, which reads a lot like a Hellblazer arc, about a world where demons have fallen sway to human control, and have become the playthings of London mobsters. This issue digs a lot more into the mechanics of how this all works, setting aside some of the excellent character work of the first two issues, and leaving me a little cold. There are some pages that were coloured in greyscale, and that took me right back to Adlard’s work on The Walking Dead. This is a good series, but I found this issue harder to connect with than usual.
Fantastic Four #3 – Since Ryan North took over the writing of this book, we’ve only checked in on three of the Fantastic Four. Now it’s time for Johnny to get an issue of his own, as we see how he’s managed the fallout of whatever happened that caused the team to disband and leave New York. Johnny’s still there, but he’s working under a false name for a corporation that’s taking advantage of him. He finally decides to do something about it, and is surprised to learn that his boss has figured him out so well that he has no fear of him, knowing that Johnny would never use his flames to hurt someone. I like the way this story was structured, but am ready for the team to get back together and for us to know what happened to the team. North and artist Iban Coello are doing a great job of giving us a new take on Marvel’s oldest team, and I’m liking it a lot.
Gotham City: Year One #4 – Things get a lot more intense in this issue, as Slam Bradley has to deal with both the police and Richard Wayne being furious with him. It’s hard to talk about this issue without revealing things from the last one that are important, but I can say that I’m really enjoying the way that Tom King is giving us his take on the Lindbergh baby story, told from Slam’s perspective. Phil Hester’s art is so perfect for this story, and their shared vision of post-war Gotham is fascinating.
Kaya #4 – Wes Craig continues to impress with this fantasy series. Kaya and her companions have killed the beast they were sent to kill, and are now making their way to the city where Seth is expected to marry the Chief’s daughter, something that he finally tells Kaya about now. I like how Craig has been building this series, and suggests here that there’s more going on than we previously knew. The characters are developing nicely, and Craig’s art is fantastic. This is a great new series.
Manifest Destiny #48 – It’s taken ten years, but the Lewis and Clark expedition has finally come to the end of its journey, as has this excellent comic by Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts. This has been a very unique comic, showing us an unexpected take on the historical journey, as they came across a number of monsters and creatures, although few were as terrible as the Americans themselves. This has been a really interesting book, with strong character work and inventive art, and I’m glad I took a chance on it all that time ago. Roberts is a very talented artist, and I’ve really enjoyed watching him become even better than he was at the beginning. I don’t know if Dingess has been writing any other books during all this time, but I would definitely check out any project coming from either man. I like how this series has shown a darker side to America’s Western myths, and demonstrated one argument for why the country’s actions always seem so tainted. At the same time, Lewis and Clark, to say nothing of Sacagawea, come out of this as very complicated characters that, in the end, really are heroes. This was a great series, and I’ll miss it.
Marauders #10 – Steve Orlando’s writing for this series has been hard to follow. Kate’s taken the team deep into the past to try to save Threshold, the first mutant community, from three different threats, and also uses this as an opportunity to seek vengeance on an old enemy. There’s just been too much going on in this arc, and Eleonora Carlini’s art, and the costumes she’s put the team in so they’ll survive, makes it very hard to tell characters apart from one another. I appreciate the ambition in this storyline, but I’m glad to see that it’s come to its end. I’m hoping that the Marauders are done with jumping around through space and time and we can get some more character-driven arcs moving forward, as I see a lot of potential in this book.
Mosely #1 – Rob Guillory has proven himself as a writer with his excellent series Farmhand, so I was eager to check out this new title he has with Sam Lotfi at Boom! At the start of the book, Mosely is inducted into a program where he spends a year helping train an AI by talking to it, and then thirty years later, he is increasingly unhappy with the ways in which the tech he had a hand in creating has taken over the world. This has led to a strained relationship with his daughter, who was an infant when he was in the program, and general dissatisfaction with his life. He finally decides to take matters into his own hands, and the book takes a strange turn towards maybe becoming a superhero book. This was an interesting first issue, with very nice art. Guillory is staying away from the humor that was so ingrained in his art in Chew and, to a lesser extent, in Farmhand, as he gives us a pretty serious story. I like it.
Orc Island #1-4 – It took me a little while to get my hands on this set, a recent Bad Idea series by the incomparable team of Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli. I love when these two work together, starting with the Vertigo series Unknown Soldier, and continuing through an excellent graphic novel for TKO about the homeless population of Venice Beach. For this series, they took all limits off their creativity, and gave us a dark fantasy story about a young half-Elf thief who has grown up in squalor but sees the chance to be rich by traveling with a woman he’s just met to Orc Island. It seems that Orc skulls are among the most prized possessions of the ruling class, and acquiring them, which can only be done with the help of a sorcerer, since the island is ringed in a mystical fog, can be very lucrative. This is a mean and bleak story, and I kind of loved it. Dysart and Ponticelli built a complex world for this one story, and then ran roughshod over it. There are no good characters here, but it still makes for an enjoyable story. Ponticelli’s art, on this nice quality paper, is gorgeous, and the books are weighty. I like this a lot more than their other Bad Idea title, Odinn’s Eye, as it’s a more complete story. There are unrelated backup stories in each issue, some of which were very good. It’s become a lot harder to get Bad Idea books these days, so I’m thankful that the store I shop at was able to provide this for me.
Rogue State #2 – I guess this is the rare Matteo Pizzolo written Black Mask comic that is going to come out on some kind of schedule (unless I just jinxed it). The second issue of this series hits as hard as the first, showing us what our hero, now known as Dust Girl, has to do to make a living, all while trying to stay out of the way of the fascist militias that operate with impunity across the US. This series is interesting, and showcases incredible art by C. Granda, who is new to me. There’s a scene where our hero, Clara, tries to get away from some cops or militia dudes, but is dosed with mescaline, and experiences really trippy visions while fighting. The comic is printed on larger paper, which makes the art even more delightful and impactful. This is working better than Calexit, the last series where Pizzolo played with similar themes.
Star Wars #30 – What started as a fun vacation mission for Leia and her crew now has them all stuck in a space outside of Hyperspace, with possibly no way to get back home. Charles Soule is having a bit of fun with this arc, matched by the lighter art of Andrés Genolet. It’s decent.
Stillwater #17 – We’re getting very close to the end of this excellent series from Chip Zdarsky and Ramón Perez, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. This was another exciting issue, as the people of Coldwater tried to make a move against Galen and the people of Stillwater, while our heroes bunker down and try to figure out how they can make this work for them, knowing what they now know about the town’s origins and the reason why everything within its borders can’t die. I’m usually much more interested in the beginnings of stories like this than I am their endings, but Zdarsky and Perez have built this story really well, and I’m finding it pretty gripping.
20th Century Men #5 – I firmly believe that this is one of the best comics on the stands right now. Denniz Camp and Stipan Morian are telling a complicated story about the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, and America set in the 1980s. The series is mostly focused on Iron Star, Platonov, who is a Soviet version of Iron Man. In this issue, we learn about the Soviet paradise, maintained by the powers of Revmir, a Doctor Midnight figure, and we see how Azra, Platonov’s former Afghani translator, stole his ‘heart’ and used it to develop a utopian village based on Afghan traditions. This series has been digging into the myths that the major Empires of the 20th century told about themselves, and with the psychotic American super-soldier 8Bill rampaging through the Afghan countryside, it’s not likely that Azra’s paradise will survive any better than Revmir’s did. The art in this book is gorgeous, with Morian showing us characters that are full of personality, and Camp’s writing has the reader doing a lot of work, but it’s always rewarded. This was a chunky comic, with a considerable page length. I think this series is set to end with the next issue, and I have no idea how so many concepts and storylines can come to resolution, even in an oversized issue.
We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #15 – Another series that came to its end this week is Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo’s theological science fiction masterpiece. In the future they created, mankind has come to rely on the metals and minerals found in the bodies of the gods, giant celestial beings that appeared regularly at the edge of the galaxy, until they completely stopped with the appearance of the body of Captain Georges Malik, himself a god miner who returned as a dead god. This last issue, like much of the series, jumps around in time, and only kind of explains the things we’ve been wondering about since the series began. Ewing had a large, sweeping, and philosophical story to tell with this series, and while I’m not sure I caught everything in the end, I did really enjoy it. Di Meo’s art was always beautiful, if sometimes a little hard to follow, and was a big part of what made this series so unique. I’m always going to show up for a book like this, even if its ambition is perhaps a little beyond its ability to meet it. I do want to see more independent books from Ewing, who is one of my favourite mainstream writers at the moment.
X-Force #36 – We finally return to some of the plotlines that started this series with the return of Xeno, and the acknowledgement of what’s been going on with Colossus. Wolverine is still missing, but the rest of the team is moving forward with investigating Xeno, although no one trusts or has much patience for Beast anymore. This issue gave me hope that there is a larger plan in place for this series, and I’m hoping that something gets resolved soon.
X-Men Red #10 – There were more than a couple of points in this issue where I started to wonder if this series was ending. Al Ewing wraps up some of his long-running plotlines, with Abigail Brand’s machinations revealed, and Storm facing Vulcan on Arakko. We also learn who it is that lives inside the orb known as Orbis Stellaris, which I can guess ties this into an upcoming X-event of sorts. I like this title best when it’s focused on its cast of characters, and hope that the next issues will provide that. Ewing has a lot happening in this book, and it’s never quite felt like a singular title yet, but I’m hoping we get there.
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Scarlet Witch #1
Bargain Comics:
Dark Red: Where Roads Lead – I picked up this oversized Aftershock book because I found it in a dollar bin, and because I haven’t read much by Tim Seeley since Revival ended. I didn’t realize that this was the continuation of a series I was clearly not aware of before, so I was a little lost in parts, but generally, this is a decent vampire story. Chip is a vampire who is trying to live a low-key life working the night shift at a gas station, but when he discovers that an old friend of his from the Second World War is dying, he makes a cross-country trip to see him, and ends up having to fight to save the man’s soul. I was entertained, but I’m not sure I’m intrigued enough to seek out the rest of the Dark Red series.
