The Weekly Round-Up #695 With Gotham City: Year One #6, The Ambassadors #1, Vampirella: Year One #6, Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1, Daredevil #9, Don’t Spit in the Wind #1 & More!

Columns, Top Story

Best Comic of the Week:

Gotham City: Year One #6 – This excellent series by Tom King and Phil Hester comes to a close this month, and I have to say it’s one of King’s most successful recent titles.  He’s given us a story of Bruce Wayne’s grandparents, and the start of Gotham’s decline, while also breathing new life into the classic character of Slam Bradley.  King’s Bradley is still the tough-guy PI we’ve always known, but as the truth about his own family is revealed, and how it motivated him to both join and leave the Gotham Police, we see him with so much more depth than ever before.  This was a great series, and an easy entry point for fans of detective novels, into the DC Universe.  Hester has always impressed me, but I think this is some of his best work.  

Quick Takes:

Action Comics #1053 – I continue to enjoy Philip Kennedy Johnson’s writing on this series (it’s weird how he just keeps getting books that I don’t traditionally gravitate towards – I’m probably going to be reading his Hulk series soon, despite not loving that character, just as I don’t love Superman).  The Metallo storyline is keeping my interest, but I’m more enamored of the Superman Family storylines, as Jon struggles to adjust to having two new siblings who are around the age he was when he was torn from his family.  The backup stories continue to leave me a little cold, although I’m probably going to follow the Power Girl/Omen one into its recently announced Special conclusion.  I do wish I knew what PG’s story is after thirty years of constant reboots.  They hint at it a lot, but really, I have no idea who this character is now.

The Ambassadors #1 – I’ve kind of gotten tired of Mark Millar’s series in the last few years, but when I saw that he was back working with Frank Quitely on this one, I couldn’t resist.  Quitely’s aesthetic hasn’t changed over the years, and it’s nice to see some new work from him.  Millar is returning to familiar ground with this series – we have a Korean billionaire who has, from prison, perfected a process to create superhumans, and wants to use this to elevate some of the best people on the planet to become ambassadors for her vision of the world.  It’s interesting, but a lot of space is spent showing previous attempts to pretend that superhumans already existed during the Cold War, and so we aren’t given a whole lot of story here.  Still, I want to see where this is going to go, and how it will be different from The Authority or Jupiter’s Legacy.

Daredevil #9 – I’ve been growing increasingly impressed with Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil.  I enjoyed the run leading up to the Devil’s Reign crossover, but since then, as Matt and Elektra have decamped to a secret island to build an army of villains to fight the Hand, it’s gotten steadily better and better.  With this issue, it looks like things are about to fall apart – Doc Samson is leaving, and the Stromwyns have decided that instead of using the Hand to fight their battles, they’ll do it themselves.  There’s a couple of big revelations that will have big repercussions for Matt, just as the Avengers arrive.  This book is just so good, blending the best elements from Frank Miller’s day with a more modern sensibility.  Manuel Garcia drew this issue, as a guest artist, and it looks very nice.  

Detective Comics #1070 – As we learn more about the Orgham family, we are also introduced to The Vigil, a mysterious team about to get their own title.  Ram V’s Detective is a strange series – it’s not all that focused on Batman, and he doesn’t seem very effective as multiple enemies seem to be able to do their thing, and the Orghams don’t appear to be hiding their intentions very well.  I’m liking this book, which has a very different feel to it, but I don’t always feel like I’m catching everything.  That might be part of the appeal though…

Don’t Spit in the Wind #1 – I don’t know anything about the creators of this new series, Stefano Cardoselli and Dan Lee, but the preview pages in Previews looked interesting, and I liked the dirty details of the art, so I decided to add this new Mad Cave series to my pullfile list.  In the future, mankind has fled the Earth, but now a crew has returned in gigantic vehicles tasked with cleaning up its toxic atmosphere and poisoned ground.  One of the crews has gone silent, so some of the men working this job have to check on them, while another has to fend off a locust swarm on his own.  Lee’s art reminds me of Geof Darrow’s, which is always a good thing, and while the story is very decompressed, it grabs my attention.  I feel like Mad Cave is a company I should be watching carefully.

Invincible Iron Man #4 – I like that Gerry Duggan has chosen to make Feilong, the Chinese businessman who has been making appearances in X-Men, the main antagonist for Tony Stark in this run.  Feilong has taken over Stark Enterprises, which leaves Tony annoyed, but not as annoyed as he is over the deaths of his friend and his neighbour.  He and Feilong face off on Wall Street, and it makes for an exciting issue.

Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 – I’m not familiar with writer Dennis Culver, nor with what’s happened lately with the Doom Patrol in their Gerard Way era, but I love Chris Burnham’s art, and have nostalgia for the Grant Morrison Doom Patrol days, so figured I would check out this new take.  I’ll admit to being a little lost – I’m not sure when Rita Farr and Larry Trainer returned (I much preferred Rebus), or who this new Beast Girl is, but I did like the idea that the team is returning to the roots of the X-Men’s mission – to track down individuals whose metagene was activated by the Lazarus Planet event, and try to help them.  The rampage of one such character in Gotham draws the attention of Batman, and some conflict, but it’s resolved in an interesting way.  I do like that the new Chief is one of Crazy Jane’s personalities, and am curious to see how that character is portrayed now that we know more about her condition.  Burnham’s art is always enjoyable, and he’s a good choice for a book like this.  I can see myself grabbing the next issue to get a little more familiar with this new take on the classic, but chronically mis-handled team.

Vampirella: Year One #6 – I’ve been eagerly waiting for this conclusion to Priest’s take on Vampirella’s origin story, which covered a whole lot more than a year.  I was hoping to see more of Vampi’s time in New York in the 70s, which was hinted at during Priest’s first Vampirella series, but I guess that’s not going to happen.  We do get appearances by Pantha and Nyx in this issue, which also announces the next title in Priest’s opus with this character.  I was starting to worry that Draculina was going to be his only book in this universe.  

Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:

Clobberin Time #1

Mister Mammoth HC

Waller Vs. Wildstorm #1

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