Best Comic of the Week:
Sins of the Salton Sea #2 – I knew I was going to like this new AWA series by Ed Brisson and CP Smith, but it really is working for me. Last issue, we met a drifter whose brother convinced him to return to his old criminal ways for one last job. That job went horribly wrong, and now the guy is protecting a woman and her son from her ex-husband, who runs or is highly placed in a cult of some sort. This series reminds me of the recent Remender/Araújo series A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance, and it’s just as violent. Smith’s art has never looked this good, and Brisson excels at throwing us into fast-moving stories and letting us catch up on our own time. I want to know more about this cult, and what’s really going on.
Quick Takes:
Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #5 – Jon’s time in the Injustice Universe continues to vex him, as he inadvertently leads that world’s Superman to the only people capable of standing against him. As with his previous series, Tom Taylor continues to examine what makes Jon tick, and show just how good a person he is. I am wondering why no one is working on freeing the other Superman and Red Tornado from the Phantom Zone, but I guess there’s a lot going on already.
Barnstormers #1 – I’ve grown kind of cold on Scott Snyder’s writing, but when I saw that this new Dark Horse series was being drawn (or maybe painted?) by Tula Lotay, I decided to add it to my pullfile list, and I’m glad I did. This book is gorgeous. It’s a period piece set in the 1920s, and starring Hawk, a young man trying to make it as a traveling stunt pilot. When he (literally) crashes a wedding, he meets Tillie, who just might get him into more trouble than he can already manage to find on his own. This issue is double-sized, giving a very satisfying amount of comics for $5. We get to know Hawk (his real name is Bix, of course), Tillie, and the aging Pinkerton who is hired to track them down. Lotay shows a lot of attention to the time period, and generally does a terrific job on this issue. Snyder structures the story well, giving us a lot of foreshadowing and establishing that something is not quite right with Bix. I’m glad I decided to get this book.
Captain America #750 – It took a while for the two recent Captain America series to get started, and now it’s taking even longer for them to wind down. This oversized anniversary issue is a collection of short stories. The first shows how Sam got his own shield, and how Misty Knight convinced him to take up the mantle of Captain America again. The second story continues Steve’s fight with the Outer Circle, as he brings his friends to England for Roger Daltrey’s funeral, and he has an important conversation with Bucky. There are some other backup stories, but they tend to fall into the familiar patterns of Cap short stories in anniversary issues. I did like JM DeMatteis’s tribute to Arnie Roth, a character he added into Cap’s life, and one of the first prominent 2SLGBTQ+ characters in the Marvel universe. Of course, this issue doesn’t finish off the Lanzing and Kelly storyline – we need another issue, called Captain America Finale to accomplish that. It’s getting tiresome, and is part of the reason why I intend to skip the upcoming JMS Cap series.
Daredevil #13 – Chip Zdarsky’s series has been building to this for a long time, and now Matt’s in Hell, searching to destroy the Beast and save his friends. Zdarsky seems to really understand Matt’s Catholicism, in a way that other writers have largely ignored, and it makes this issue very effective. I’m going to miss Zdarsky on this book – his Daredevil has been the best of this century. I think there’s only one issue left…
Doctor Strange #5 – The Doctor and Clea attend Umar’s wedding, to one of the surviving people responsible for Strange’s recent death, and as awkward family events go, it’s right up there. We maybe learn the truth of who is behind these attacks on Strange’s rivals and enemies, but Jed MacKay is still keeping a lot from us. Pasqual Ferry returns after missing an issue, and his art continues to be just so good. I’m really enjoying this book, and am pleased that I’m not too far behind for having never read Clea’s series or the Death of Strange mini.
Draculina: Blood Simple #4 – Draculina and Vampirella are trapped in a mind-realm kind of deal, while Kate is pursued by one of her ‘brothers’. Priest’s work on Vampirella is coming to its finish, and things are getting more and more chaotic by the month (or more than a month, given how late this book was). I never thought I’d end up reading anything from Dynamite for more than the odd miniseries, but I’ve been glued to Priest’s work on this and other titles.
Fantastic Four #9 – Sue and Alicia end up having to face the threat of Xargorr, the wooden monster that has wiped the memories of many people in the small town where they’ve moved, on their own. The story is told through Alicia’s perspective, and it’s clear that Ryan North has really thought about how someone without sight would experience the wild life that living with the FF would provide you, and like his other issues in this excellent run, that thought helps to inform and bolster the experience of reading this comic. I haven’t been this excited about the FF in a long time.
Hairball #4 – I don’t think I expected this supernatural, creepy cat story to end like this. The main character, now an adult, goes searching for the cat that she believes almost destroyed her life, and when she manages to track it down, she does some unexpected things that I don’t want to spoil. Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins dig into ancient Egyptian history to tie everything together, and it all works very well. This was a special, unique comic, with gorgeous art.
Knight Terrors: Ravager #1 – My plan for this weird two-month Knight Terrors event was to mostly skip it, but then I relented a little and decided to pick up series written by creative teams I would usually buy (although I decided to skip anything being written by Joshua Williamson, because I’m not actually interested in this event and figure his books will be too tapped in to understand without the main book, but I might relent on Superman if it looks relevant to the monthly). Anyway, I am a fan of Ed Brisson’s writing, and I am a fan of Ravager and the Deathstroke family, so I figured I’d get this. I’m not reading the Stormwatch stories that Brisson is writing featuring Rose in Batman: Brave and the Bold because of the price of the book, which is too bad because I would totally add a Stormwatch monthly to my pullfile. Anyway, I think this might be the standard for these series. Rose is in a nightmare world, trying to save a young girl named Rose from a creature. It’s kind of predictable and maybe a little disappointing. Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered with any of this event…
Love Everlasting #9 – Joan’s marriage to Don continues, and as they get older, his health starts to deteriorate. It seems that her mental illness is a thing of the past, and she no longer sees the cowboy, but seeing as it’s still 1963, we are left with a number of questions that I hope get resolved next issue. Tom King and Elsa Charretier have really upended expectations with this book, and I really do not have a clue what to expect from its ending.
Mosely #5 – Rob Guillory wraps up his AI nightmare miniseries with this issue, which is big on action and family. I enjoyed this series, and Sam Lotfi’s art in it, but in the end I feel like it got a little too standard, and would have been better digging a little deeper. I’m not sure why these AIs had the powers of gods, or where Mosely’s hammer came from, and I thought that would have all been explained.
Phantom Road #5 – Things progress at a much faster pace in this issue, as we learn a little about the strange item that Dom and Birdie are transporting, and we see that the FBI is probably involved in the weirdness. I’ve appreciated how Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernandez Walta have kept the reader largely in the dark so far, but suspect that the next issue will tell us a lot more. This is a cool and strange adventure comic.
Star Wars #36 – Leia has arranged for a symbolic attack on Coruscant, now that Vader and Palpatine are struggling to control the Force. I like an issue like this, where the Rebels have a clear goal and we get to see some space battle action. Charles Soule has done a good job of integrating Lando into the regular crew, and even shows how Nien Nunb first came to fly the Millennium Falcon. It’s a solid issue.
X-Men #24 – As the third Hellfire Gala comes closer, the X-Men try to take a bit of a vacation on Gameworld, only to find that one of their Arakkan comrades is robbing the place. There’s some chaos, and a soul-searching talk between Scott and Jean. We also see Sunfire depart on a mission to Otherworld. Gerry Duggan has a lot going on in this book right now, and while I’m enjoying it, I wish it wasn’t so tied in to other Krakoan titles, and the coming lineup change. We don’t get enough time with any one squad it seems.
X-Men: Before The Fall – The Sinister Four #1 – Continuing with the string of one-shots that lead into the Fall of X, we have Doctor Stasis and Mother Righteous having dinner. Of course there’s more to it than that, these characters have a long shared history, even if they’ve only recently met, and Gerry Duggan uses this issue to reveal more information about the Sinister clones, Orchis’s plans, and what Mother Righteous is up to. It’s a solid issue that does help advance the plot of the larger Krakoan story, and it’s interesting that there are no Krakoans in this issue. I don’t really know what The Fall of X is supposed to be, but I’m definitely put off by the sheer number of titles that are appearing because of it. I’d rather have a centralized miniseries.
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Peacemaker Tries Hard #3
Swan Song #1
The Week in TV:
I’m A Virgo – This is a new series on Amazon Prime that has a casual approach to characters having powers or abilities, and is sure to appeal to discerning comics readers. It’s by Boots Riley (of the incredible band The Coup, and also the writer/director of Sorry To Bother You, one of the best movies ever made). I’m A Virgo centres on Cootie, a 13 foot tall nineteen year old resident of Oakland whose parents have always kept him hidden from the world due to his massive size, figuring that they were keeping him safe. Now that Cootie is grown, he wants to make friends and explore the world (and mostly eat at Bing Bang Burger). When he rebels and enters the world, we get to see it through his naive and TV-influenced eyes for a while. Soon, though, Riley’s vision of the world comes forward, and after an avoidable tragedy, Cootie gets involved in Oakland’s anti-eviction movement, and a call for a general strike. As his world expands, we meet some of his friends, and his romantic interest. Flora has super speed (and together they have one of the most memorable sex scenes ever shown on television). Jones has the power to visualize complex arguments. The Bay Area has a hero, called The Hero, who also stars in a comic series that he writes himself (he’s also a tech giant). Like with Sorry To Bother You, Riley wants to talk about capitalism and the importance of collective action, and he engages the audience by first hooking them on this sweet and amusing story. The camera work, which allows you to believe that Cootie is so big, is pretty stunning, as is Riley’s extreme levels of creativity. Comics readers won’t find this world so strange. I think of this series as being magical realism in a post-MCU world, where really the only way to engage viewers is to have some super powers or weird tech in the world. As much as you can see Batman in the Hero’s DNA, I think the comic this most reminded me of is Brian Woods and Becky Cloonan’s Demo series from way back, where people with powers went about everyday lives. This series is a revelation, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s not much more than three and a half hours all together, and it’s worth the investment of your time.
The Week in Music:
B. Cool-Aid – Leather Blvd. – B. Cool-Aid is made up of Pink Siifu and Awhlee, two artists that have been gaining a larger fan base in the last few years. It’s hard to describe this album – is it alternative r&b? At times, it’s a rap album, but it also have a dose or two of jazz on it, provided by Butcher Brown and DJ Harrison. Some tracks sound like they would fit on an Anderson .Paak project (or maybe on a Knxworries project), but at the same time, there’s a remarkable consistency to this album. It’s a laid back alternative to a summer record; it sounds bright but also has a little bit of sinister in it. I don’t know if anything I’m saying makes sense, but I see this as one of the best albums I’ve heard this year, and am consistently impressed with it, and with the list of features (including Liv.e, Jimetta Rose, MNDSGN, Ladybug Mecca, and Quelle Chris, among others). This is a really special album.
Asher Gamedze – Turbulence And Pulse – The South African drummer Asher Gamedze really shows up on his first album. The album is split between songs recorded in a studio and a live session from a rooftop in Cairo from 2020. That second half of the album vibrates with intensity, but the whole thing is a real work of art. I expect nothing less from the International Anthem Recording Company at this point.
Yoni Mayraz – Dybbuk Tse! – This has been the year of Astigmatic Records. This latest release from the Polish jazz label features Mayraz, an Israeli artist now living in London and his productions. He plays keys, and over the course of this album, takes us on a trip through his way of seeing the world. This is a really solid release, with Mayraz’s keys floating over the contributions of his collaborators. Another Astigmatic win!
Salami Rose Joe Louis – Akousmatikous – I find Salami Rose Joe Louis to be a bit of an acquired taste. She lives somewhere between a chopped and screwed Flying Lotus project and a Hiatus Kaiyote album. She creates lush, repetitive tracks, and then sings over them. Every song kind of sounds the same, but when you’re in the right mood for it, it really works. This latest release, on Brainfeeder if you’re looking for some pedigree, is probably her best work yet, and I’m digging it. She does have a beautiful voice, even if I don’t know what a single song is about.
