Best Comic of the Week:
The Forged #5 – I love this book. The Forged team is still on the Throneworld (or in orbit around it), and Victory is summoned to meet with the Empress herself. We check in on the rest of the team as well, as they do their thing. Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann have again created a vast and fascinating world and culture for this book, and Mike Henderson makes terrific use of the larger format to give us some terrific storytelling. I like how this arc is taking its time to develop these characters outside of their armor and exploits, making them into truly interesting characters.
Quick Takes:
Antarctica #4 – Things are really coming together in this Top Cow series, which has been made into an ongoing. We learn just what the people from the other Earth are up to, using a dimensional crossing in Antarctica, as our heroes try to get home. The way in which they can power the crossing is a little too fantastical for my liking (how would the energy get harnessed?), but it works as a plot device. I’m curious to see how writer Simon Birks will build this into an ongoing story.
Astonishing Iceman #3 – I don’t really know what purpose this book is serving. Some random villain guy is going after some random new characters with ‘mutant tattoos’ that give them nonsensical powers (big eyes!), and they are protected by the Captain America of hobos, who now has powers. Bobby comes to help, after having more discussions with his generic Inhuman boyfriend about how he’s his anchor. This is not advancing the Fall of X at all, nor is it doing anything new with Bobby’s character. I feel like, as a writer, Steve Orlando has really fallen off.
Avengers Inc. #2 – As Wasp tries to learn more about the mysterious Vic Shade, she arranges a meeting with Vision at Avengers Mansion, which is now a boutique hotel. It just so happens that, on the same day they meet, a ghostly specter starts murdering people. Al Ewing is so good at this kind of slightly off-kilter superhero story that relies on some obscure continuity, and I’m here for it. It’s great to see him and Leonard Kirk working on a book like this, and I look forward to more of it, especially if it’s going to keep featuring some random cameos and guest appearances like this. The Marvel Universe needs more titles that acknowledge the breadth and depth of it.
Bone Orchard: Tenement #5 – Things just keep getting weirder as the survivors from the apartment building find themselves in the apartment of their dead neighbour, but they are also still in the otherworld that I guess is the Bone Orchard. Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino really have the tone of this surrealistic horror story down perfectly, but as we get closer to the end, I’m left with way more questions than answers.
Catwoman #58 – As the Gotham War continues, the event is shifting in focus a little. Now that both Batman and Catwoman are aware that Vandal Savage is moving against them, their differences are getting smoothed over so they can address his threat. I actually really liked how Catwoman’s new program of directing criminals to target the rich in non-violent ways was causing Batman’s family to question their methods and motives, and would have liked to see more of that, but I guess that if we dig too deeply into the foundation of what vigilantes like Batman truly value, we might break these characters. This is still a very enjoyable crossover, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it wraps up.
Children of the Vault #3 – Cable and Bishop attack the City of Tomorrow, having also arranged for Orchis to go to war with the Children. This is a big idea issue, as Orchis’s propaganda machine takes on the Childrens’ Message, while our heroes work to stop the Children. I am enjoying seeing Deniz Camp write in the Marvel Universe, and hope this is just the start of a long career there. The Children aren’t showing up anywhere else in the Fall of X titles, which feels a little strange, but this is one of the better series attached to that event.
City Boy #5 – Cameron tries to escape cities as a way of dealing with his powers, but is found by Swamp Thing, who is able to give him some of the answers he’s been looking for. This series is close to its end, and it feels like it’s still establishing Cameron’s powers and situation. As we reach the end, I’m not sure that this book ever hit its mark; it was an interesting idea, but I also think that it needed some Jack Hawksmoor appearances more than the other characters that showed up in it. I hope Greg Pak pulls something impressive out of this at the end.
Daredevil #2 – Saladin Ahmed’s new take on Daredevil is interesting. Father Matt Murdock is now able to access his memories of his first life, but is continuing to live as a priest who oversees a small foster home that is independent of the Church. He’s started to be Daredevil again, and is aware of a growing number of threats that appear to be aimed at him and the children in his care. We see a new, heavily-armed street gang, and learn who is behind media attacks on him, which is kind of a surprise. Ahmed’s writing is nice, as is Aaron Kuder’s art (channeling, at times, earlier DD artists like JRJR and Lee Weeks).
Draculina: Blood Simple #6 – Priest continues to be one of my favourite superhero comics writers, but I feel like this second Draculina series got away from him a little. He’s a master at having a number of threads come together at the end of a story in surprising ways, but I found this one really hard to follow. In the end, we get a bit of a new status quo for Katie and Draculina, but I’m not sure what it means for the larger story being told in Priest’s Vampirella book (which is now called Vampirella/Dracula: Rage). I think what really threw me is Vampirella’s inclusion in this book, given what’s happening to her in her own title. The continuity felt wrong here, and I let stuff like that bug me.
Dune: House Harkonnen #10 – As we move towards the end of this series, lots happens for a change. The Swordsmaster school is attacked, Gurney Halleck turns up on Caladan, and Leto’s first concubine moves against him. There are a lot of plot threads in this series, and it seems that they are coming together. I like this series, but it is still a little stiff, as are many novel adaptations.
Green Lantern War Journal #2 – Phillip Kennedy Johnson gets John a job offer at Steelworks, before the new inter-dimensional threat comes after him, putting his mother in danger in the process. I’m not a big GL guy, but I’ve always liked John, and have come to trust Kennedy’s writing. I also like Montos’s art, which has a bit of a Steve Pugh thing happening on some pages.
Hexagon Bridge #2 – The first issue of Richard Blake’s new Image book was a little confusing, but this second one clarifies things a little better, and gives us a pair of characters to attach to. Years have passed since the first issue, and young Adley has grown into a young woman who is still able to sense her parents, who have crossed the bridge into another dimension and been lost. She’s been working to help develop Staden, an advanced AI believed to be able to navigate the other dimension. They’ve been training together, preparing for their journey, but Adley feels the time to move is now as she’s starting to sense the entity from the other dimension. Blake’s art is gorgeous and lush, and so good that this is one of the rare books where the story is almost secondary. I’m glad I decided to take a chance on this title.
Incredible Hulk #5 – Travel Foreman is a strange choice of artist for this issue, which has Hulk and Man-Thing talking about the threat following Hulk, before our hero gets a little smashy and belligerent. This series is interesting, but not exactly what I expected from Phillip Kennedy Johnson. The Power Man backup story is cute, but I’d have preferred to keep my dollar.
In Hell We Fight #5 – John Layman and Jok wrap up the first arc of this series, and if I’m being honest, the ending feels a little rushed. We learn some things about Midori, and realize that getting the Angel out of Hell won’t be as easy as they hoped. In the letters page, Layman shares that it will be a while before the second arc (of three) begins, and I do hope this book comes back. Layman is a great comedic writer, and I really like Jok’s art. These characters have grown on me.
Invincible Iron Man #11 – Tony and Emma are off on their sham honeymoon, which gives Tony a chance to test out his new stealth armor (which we finally get to see in operation in his own book after it’s been in every issue of the new Avengers run) by infiltrating Krakoa. I really like how serious this book has become, and how it shows Tony as being more involved with the rest of the Marvel Universe than we’ve seen in some time. Gerry Duggan is doing a great job with this title, and the guest art by Andrew Di Vito was welcome.
Jay Garrick: The Flash #1 – I was pretty excited to see that writer Jeremy Adams isn’t done with the Flash Family, writing this miniseries focused on the first Flash. His daughter is back, after Geoff Johns retconned a number of teen heroes into existence in a Stargirl miniseries. Boom, Judy Garrick, hasn’t been seen since the early 60s, and she’s still young while her parents are now quite old. She’s struggling with her new environment, but is also determined to stay true to her past, and wants to solve a mystery that’s now sixty years old. Adams is good at family-based superheroics (this might be what’s missing from his current Green Lantern book), and I do love the Garricks, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this.
Junior Baker: The Righteous Faker #2 – I’m going to admit that I’m not really sure what’s going on in this book, but I also take comfort in the fact that neither does its main character, who keeps drinking a strange tequila that makes him trip. I trust Joe Casey, but need to reread the first two issues together to get a better sense of what this is all about. I’m impressed with Ryan Quackenbush’s art, and am interested in understanding this book better.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #11 – Miles is working with Blade and his daughter to stop a type of energy vampire who has turned up in Brooklyn. Blade uses magic to change Miles’s costume, and it makes me wonder why he and his daughter are just in street clothes if he has those kinds of abilities now. I really want to like Cody Ziglar’s take on Miles, but it keeps not working for me as plot is so much more important than character in his book, and a Miles story without Miles being true to character is really just another Spider-Man story.
Moon Knight #28 – Moon Knight, Hunter’s Moon, and Tigra assault the emptied office tower where Black Spectre has set up his base, as this issue explodes in violence. I’m not sure how I feel about Jed MacKay’s plans to kill of Moon Knight (this guy does kill his main characters a lot, it seems), but since he’s added Hunter’s Moon to the MK mythos, and started to explore concepts of reincarnation for Khonshu’s fists, I trust there’s an interesting plan for this. This has been a consistently engaging and thrilling book, so I’m down to see what his plans are.
Nightwing #107 – Dick’s old girlfriend is a pirate captain connected to the secret vault that he discovered a while ago, and now he has to help her shore up her control of the secret pirate society by capturing her evil brother. Tom Taylor is doing a rare thing here, connecting his run to a previous Nightwing run, and it feels very old school, which I love. This is a consistently good book that I continue to enjoy a lot.
Saga #66 – Of all the books that I missed out on getting when Image shipments to my LCS were messed up, Saga hurt the most, because this issue was already pretty late and it’s a book I consistently look forward to reading. As it turns out, the book is going on hiatus again, so for me, that makes it seem like a shorter hiatus. Gale, the Landfallian agent chasing Alanna, continues to hunt our favourite family, and he comes across some old friends in an issue that explores themes of redemption and responsibility. Like all issues of Saga, it’s just really, really good.
Star Wars #39 – Lando Calrissian has to get his friend Lobot and the old translator droid out of Jabba’s palace without getting attacked by the droid entity that is hunting them. This is a solid issue from Charles Soule and Madibek Musabekov.
Subgenre #1 – Matt Kindt teams up with Wilfredo Torres for this new Dark Horse miniseries that comes in a larger magazine-sized format. At the beginning, this looks to be about a private detective who gets hired by the world’s largest media company to look into some murders, and finds a plot involving very rare copies of Kindt’s and Torres’s comics. There’s more to this story than that though, as Kindt takes the reader on a bit of a Cloud Atlas journey, exploring different types of genres. Torres’s art is clean and is served well by the larger page sizes. This is interesting stuff that feels like a lot of Kindt’s work. I want to see where he’s headed with this.
Superman #7 – Joshua Williamson is pretty reverential when it comes to writing Superman, and that can irk me, but so far it seems to be working out. The Chain, or whatever he’s called, starts to wreck some havoc in Metropolis, while Superman’s family responds. As this is yet another oversized issue, we also learn something new about Lex Luthor, and see that Brainiac has plans for Earth that also involve Czarnians and the planet Braal. This was a solid chunk of comics with some great art by Gleb Melnikov (who must be looking at a lot of Chris Bachalo these days) and Edwin Galmon.
Titans #4 – Is there another artist in superhero comics whose work is as consistently beautiful as Nicola Scott’s? What she is doing with this book is just gorgeous. This issue has the Titans expanding their mission to include fixing problems, as Gar convinces them to go help replant the forest in Borneo they stopped from burning, only to discover another threat waiting. At the same time, whatever’s going on with the Church of Eternity is getting more sinister, and Wally still doesn’t know who is going to kill him in the next day, but his friends aren’t taking any chances. I really like how Tom Taylor is writing this book, and like I said before, it just looks so good.
Wonder Woman #2 – Tom King has an interesting approach to Diana in this issue. She’s involved in a standoff with Sarge Steel and the US Army, and to underline how resolute she can be, King has this scene melded to a flashback to a time when young Diana stood her ground in the arena on Themyscira. It’s an effective way of showing us how King sees Diana, and it centres her much more than the first issue did. Daniel Sampere’s art is gorgeous, and I have a lot of hope for this series. The Amazons Attack backup was a little off-putting, because I didn’t realize that there was another Amazon-oriented thing going on, and I’m hoping that whatever that series is, I won’t need to read it to enjoy this one.
The Week in Music:
Ahmad Jamal Trio – The Awakening – I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that my favourite online music store (shout out Juno Records in England) had this Japanese re-issue of this classic Ahmad Jamal Trio album up for sale at a very reasonable price. I’m used to these Japan only releases costing a small fortune, so I quickly added this to my cart. Ahmad Jamal left us last year, and this is my favourite of his albums. I’m happy to add this soul jazz classic to my collection, and urge anyone who is unfamiliar to check it out. It’s beautiful.
Dinner Party – Enigmatic Society – Dinner Party is a supergroup of sorts, made up of Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and Kamasi Washington, with frequent appearances by 9th Wonder. You’d think that these guys combining like Voltron would give us an incredible jazz album, but instead we get a great r&b project that encompasses strains of hiphop. The singer Phoelix, who is on a few tracks, reminds me a lot of Anderson .Paak, which is pretty cool.
Matthew Halsall – An Ever Changing View – We’ve been blessed with a number of short Matthew Halsall releases this year, so this album, with a full ten tracks, was a nice surprise. Halsall’s jazz is calming and very welcome in my collection. He has a number of performers on this with him, including Chip Wickham on sax and flute on a couple of tracks, but most of the work is done by Halsall, who plays trumpet and other instruments throughout. This is a great album.
The Orb and David Gilmour – Metallic Spheres in Colour – So apparently the Orb collaborated with David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, back in 2010, which I somehow missed. Now they’ve returned to that original recording and remixed it into two very different tracks, “Seamless Solar Spheres of Affection Mix” and “Seamlessly Martian Spheres of Reflection Mix”, both of which are close to twenty minutes in length. These two tracks make up this whole album, and sound very much like the Orb that I spent hours listening to in high school. I find their music to be a form of comfort food for me, and I can get lost in these mixes for ages.
