Best Comic of the Week:
Daredevil #1 – I loved Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s run on Daredevil, and felt like the character should have rested for a few months before being relaunched again, but that’s not the business plan Marvel uses. So, we have an all-new Daredevil series, written by Saladin Ahmed and drawn by Aaron Kuder, both creators I admire a lot. Matt, who has been resurrected as a priest without all of his memories, is helping run an orphanage of sorts (that only has three kids in it?). At night, though, he has troubling dreams, and is soon visited by a demon. It’s a good setup and start to things, and Kuder’s art is great. I’m pleased to see that this is not a reset of where Zdarsky left things, although I’m also not sure what new thing Ahmed is looking to explore in Matt’s life. I’m glad to see that Elektra is still in her Daredevil suit, and hope that she will remain in the book. I really don’t know why this issue had to be $7…
Quick Takes:
Astonishing Iceman #2 – I’m a little disappointed in where this miniseries is headed. Iceman is in danger of falling apart if he doesn’t spend time with his boyfriend, who he is afraid to commit to, and so instead goes around the world reacting to Orchis attempts to capture him. This time around they threaten his mother, so he returns to the place where he was bullied as a kid to save it, and ultimately, nothing much happens. Steve Orlando has proven himself time and again as someone who can tell solid superhero stories, but this feels like it was editorially mandated as a title that has no real purpose in the Fall of X hierarchy.
Avengers Inc. #1 – I’ve said many times over that Al Ewing is the best writer currently at Marvel, and he’s gone and proved it again with this new Avengers spin-off series starring Wasp. Whirlwind and six other villains were murdered in their cells, and Jan has been sent in by Luke Cage to investigate what’s going on. The thing is, they’re not exactly dead, and Whirlwind is not exactly Whirlwind anymore. Ewing stacks up the mysteries in this issue, while setting up Jan and her new partner to take on more cases for Mayor Cage. I am starting to regret having skipped the Ant-Man and Wasp miniseries that Ewing recently wrote, and I hope they won’t have much bearing on what’s going on here. Leonard Kirk manages to toe the line between superhero epic and TV procedural quite nicely with his art, and I love the fact that Jan is operating out of the Jarvis Lounge, a supper club of sorts for the costumed set. There’s a lot of potential in this book, and I’m hoping it sticks around for a while.
Batman and Robin #1 – There were a few years where I wasn’t reading any Batman books at all, and now I’m getting three monthlies (four if Batman Incorporated is still a thing, but it kind of doesn’t count). This is unexpected for me. I’m not sure exactly when Joshua Williamson became the showrunner for the entire DC line, but he’s writing this series, which has Damian moving in with Bruce in the townhouse, and them working together again. I loved Williamson’s too-short Robin title, and that’s the main reason why I picked this up. Damian is a fun character, but not everyone is good at writing him; Williamson gets him, and is showing him growing up. The main plot, which involves animal-themed villains, didn’t really stick with me, because I was paying more attention to the character interactions. The art on this book is by Simone Di Meo, whose work I enjoyed a lot on We Only Find Them When They’re Dead. He has a style that approaches animation storyboards, but is more fluid. Like with that Boom! series, I sometimes find his storytelling a little hard to follow. His work is hard to colour, and sometimes important details get washed out. This is shaping up to be an enjoyable series, and I’m going to stick around for it.
Batman Incorporated #12 – I’m disappointed to see that this book isn’t getting a longer run. I really like the concept of a team inspired by, but not particularly connected to, Batman, and I was enjoying the friction caused by having Ghost-Maker run the team. I guess sales weren’t there though, so once again I’m a little out of step with what the people want. Ed Brisson did a great job of juggling so many characters, and has set up some things that could be revisited in future years. The art was nice, and John Timms also did great work individualizing these characters who all have similar motifs. I’m curious to see where Ghost-Maker ends up next, as I like him.
Children of the Vault #2 – I’m really excited about the prospects of Deniz Camp writing for Marvel, as his 20th Century Men remains one of my favourite books of the last few years. He brings a globalist approach to his writing, looking beyond the New York-centric Marvel Universe (for example, when an Elder God attacks the Earth, it happens in Mogadishu). He is using this series to dig deeper into the ethos of the Children of the Vault, while also doing some cool things with Bishop (and to a lesser extent, Cable) in opposition to them. This book doesn’t appear to be reflected in the other Fall of X comics I’ve read so far, but I’m more than happy to experience it as its own thing; the story couldn’t be told without getting rid of most of the mutants, but at the same time, I am surprised that Orchis doesn’t have anything to say about the Childrens’ incursion into their realms. Maybe that’s still to come.
Damn Them All #8 – With this second arc, Simon Spurrier is expanding on the world he’s been building, showing us some of the other magical inhabitants, as Ellie gets contacted to help her enemy from the first arc, now that angels have started showing up and messing around with the demons that now walk the Earth. Spurrier is doing a lot of world building, and filling in more of Ellie’s past, especially with the man Cillian who is up to something. I like how dense this series is, and I love Charlie Adlard’s artwork. It’s nice to see his drawings in colour after years of The Walking Dead.
Danger Street #9 – Tom King and Jorge Fornés forgo their usual approach to this book to instead give us an entire issue made up of Codename: Assassin and Manhunter fighting on a roof. It’s a philosophical issue, with King employing a lot of his usual tricks to get into each character’s head, and show how they’ve prepared for this final battle that they know one is not going to walk away from. Fornés had a big challenge for this issue – to make a talking heads issue, with an eight panel grid, visually interesting. This series is getting close to being over, and still needs to pull a lot of things together. I’m curious to see how they pull it off.
Green Lantern #3 – I really want to like this title, because writer Jeremy Adams’s recent Flash run is so good, but it’s just so hard for anyone to make Hal Jordan likeable or interesting to me. The Sinestro pages were more engaging than the rest of the issue, and to be honest, I don’t like Sinestro either. I’m still giving this some more space to impress me, but might have to accept that some characters just can’t work.
Incredible Hulk #4 – Continuing with the horror bent of his story, Philip Kennedy Johnson takes Banner and his new companion deeper into Florida, where the dead keep turning up on the edge of some wetlands. Banner is confronted by Man-Thing, who seems to know something about the Eldest, the entity that is hunting for the Hulk. Travel Foreman handles the art this issue, and he is particularly well-suited to this kind of story. I’m liking what Johnson is doing with this book; it feels very different to me.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10 – Cody Ziglar has Miles addressing his mental health in a consultation with Doc Samson, but right after that, he’s attacked by Hightail, who is keeping tabs on him for Agent Gao. It’s taken a little while, but I think Ziglar has settled into understanding Miles a little better. I didn’t love the art by Partha Pratim and Federico Sabbatini; one or both of them make Miles look a little too old, and sometimes the storytelling is hard to follow. There’s a lot of promise in this book though, and I want to stick with it.
Project Riese #2 – The team of adventurers have made it into a massive abandoned stone Nazi city buried under a mountain, but things are not really what they expected. There’s evidence of alien cultures, and something repaired the guy they killed last issue. Zac Thompson is mashing up Indiana Jones with a bunch of other things in this series, and it’s working really well. I’m very pleased with Jeff McComskey’s art; he has a cartoonish vibe that offsets the foreboding of the setting, but still makes it pretty creepy.
Quest #2 – The first issue of Quest, the new fantasy series by Jonathan Luna and Crystal Wood, was good, but it had a lot of heavy lifting to do to get the story underway, whereas this issue has a lot more space to breathe and focus on Princess Anya’s character. She and her sentinel are joined by the sentinel of her kidnapped new husband, a prince, as they head out to cross into the Demon Lands and find him. We get some backstory, a sense of what life is like in the countryside, and our first glimpse at the territory the demons have taken over (where the bovine parasites are really pretty aggressive). I’m always down to read something from one of the Luna brothers, and I’m happy to see that this is really starting to pull me in. As always, the art is phenomenal.
Red Goblin #8 – I’m still buying this book, despite my hatred of symbiotes and my general lack of interest in the expanded Goblin family. Alex Paknadel is an amazing writer, and while this issue starts to creak under its own weight, I remain hopeful that it will keep getting better. I had no real idea that Norman Osborn is a hero now, nor that Normie’s mom also has a symbiote. This stuff is all pretty foreign to me…
Sacrificers #2 – With this second issue, Rick Remender and Max Fiumara focus on the young people being collected for sacrifice. The ‘pigeon’ we met last issue is more or less our point of view character, and he and the other sacrifices are made to march through many towns and a city, picking up more sacrifices. One is a whale-like young woman who has a very different view of what is to happen to them than the others; she’s religious and accepts her fate, while the more feral humans in the party act as brutes. I’m not sure what Remender is up to with this book yet, but I’m interested, and I’m enjoying Fiumara’s anthropomorphic artwork. This is an intriguing new series.
Sins of the Salton Sea #4 – This penultimate issue of this excellent cult/chase series by Ed Brisson and CP Smith gives us a better idea of what the Sons of the Salton Sea cult are all about, as Silver, the kid our hero is trying to protect, takes off on his own. It seems the world is about to be destroyed unless Silver can be sacrificed, but that’s only if you believe what the cult believes. Brisson and Smith play to each other’s strengths here, and this series is interesting and more than a little unpredictable.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #38 – Vader is holding fast against the droids coming after him on the Endeavor, while a number of other other Star Destroyers arrive on scene to destroy them all. Vader really does spend a lot of time fighting other Imperials, or their agents, in Greg Pak’s run. This was a solid issue.
Superman: Lost #6 – I love this series. At this point in the story, Superman’s been away from Earth for years, and finally has to accept that the world he’s made a home on is going to be destroyed by its unstable sun, which is also draining his own powers. He’s finally given a path back to Earth, but even that is not what it seems. The last page of this issue genuinely surprised me. Priest is such a good writer, and he’s at his best when partnered with Carlos Pagulayan. I realize that this whole series is going to involve a time loop, but it’s also probably the most linear story Priest has written in decades.
X-Force #44 – Domino and Sage are trying to find the rest of X-Force, which means they need to find Piotr and Mikhail. I’m glad that all of this stuff with Colossus is finally coming to a head, and this issue is pretty exciting. This series needed a shot in the arm, and it seems that’s what Fall of X is providing.
X-Men Red #15 – War continues on Arakko, as we get a better look at the Fisher King’s past, and see what Genesis has planned. This series is always good, but it’s kind of odd that one of my favourite X-books barely features any X-Men. Instead, Marvel has given Al Ewing space to do whatever he wants on a grand scale, and I really appreciate that.
The Week in Music:
BLK ODYSSY – Diamonds & Freaks – I picked up this dark alternative R&B album at BLK ODYSSY’s recent concert, and I find it interesting. He explores his history with lust and infidelity on these songs, reflecting on how that shaped his sense of identity, and how he’s working through it. The songs are a little stripped down, and his voice is introspective. Some tracks are pretty sexual. I think his first album was more exciting, but this shows a maturity in him as an artist that I like to support. The live show was fantastic, as is his band.
jaimie branch – Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War)) – Last summer we lost jaimie branch, the experimental jazz trumpeter who has released albums on her own, as part of Anteloper, and has collaborated with a number of exciting artists in the jazz scene. I got to see her play an Anteloper set about a month before her passing and also got to see one of the Fly or Die performances in a dark park clubhouse a couple years before the pandemic. branch was an incredible performer, and I am forever grateful that this last album was recorded and able to be released. branch’s trumpet soars over her ensemble on these tracks, and she graces a few songs with her voice. There’s a triumph to her playing on some of these pieces, and the entire package is more accessible than some of her earlier work. This is a really beautiful album, that serves as a solid coda to her small but mighty discography.
Cautious Clay – Karpeh – Up and coming multi-instrumentalist and singer Cautious Clay has signed to Blue Note, and this album really showcases the breadth and depth of his talent. Some of the songs are pop or soul songs, but there’s also a lot of jazz. He explores themes of family, supported by interludes of his family members talking about their last name and their family home, with the result that this album evokes a sense of place and belonging above all else. I don’t think I love every track, but the second half of the album is warm and lively, and reminds me of the excellent concert he gave a year or more back.
