Best Comic of the Week:
Deer Editor #1 – I’m starting to think of Mad Cave Studios as the new Black Mask, except that their books mostly come out. Ryan K. Lindsay is a writer I associate with Black Mask, and when I saw that he had a series coming with the incredible Sami Kivelä, of Abbott fame, I quickly preordered it. It’s a cool noir-ish story about a newspaper editor who is investigating the mayor of his city for possible misdeeds and a connection to a bizarre death. What makes this book stand out is that Bucky, the journalist, is an anthropomorphized deer, but everyone else in the book is a normal human. Bucky makes good use of his enhanced smell and tolerance to things, but his unique status and appearance is never commented on by anyone else in the story. This first issue is a sizable chunk of comics, with a lot of story packed in. Kivelä’s art is as good as I’ve come to expect, and I like the blue shading by colourist Lauren Affe. I’m glad I chose to give this book a chance; there’s not really anything like it on the stands right now.
Quick Takes:
Bone Orchard: Tenement #8 – I’ve been enjoying this series since it started, but this issue really ramped things up, as one character takes an unexpected turn, and the dwindling party of apartment dwellers trapped in a strange land continue their journey. Andrea Sorrentino continues to do cool things with the layout and design of this series, and Jeff Lemire reaps some clues that were planted a while ago.
Damn Them All #12 – When this series started, I called it the best Hellblazer comic we’ve seen in ages, and now as Simon Spurrier and Charlie Adlard wrap things up with this issue, I’ve come to realize that it’s really more of a “Hellblazer’s niece” series. This could easily have been a Vertigo book back in the day, and I say that as high praise. In this issue, Ellie faces down all her remaining enemies, the guy who has been manipulating the demons, and the angels of heaven themselves, in an effort to restore some sanity to the world. This has been a great read, and it’s been so nice to get regular Adlard art again after the ending of The Walking Dead. I think that Spurrier is one of the best writers in the business right now, and love that he’s got books coming out all over the place (see below) that are always a little challenging and highly rewarding.
Detective Comics #1081 – Still in the clutches of the Azmer, the mind control substance introduced by the Orghams, Batman gets abandoned in the desert by Talia, and told to fight his inner demons as he crosses it by night. At the same time, the Question starts to patrol a Gotham that has largely forgotten Batman, as she tries to figure out what happened to one of her detectives. Ram V’s writing on this book is very curious – it digs into the mythologizing of Batman’s character, and relies heavily on the work of Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan to give it context, but is also its own thing. I’m really enjoying his work lately, and love that he’s been given so much space and time on this book to develop his vision. The art is shared by Riccardo Federici and Stefano Raffaele, and very effectively. Federici’s style is perfect for the surreal desert scenes.
Dune: House Harkonnen #12 – The second Dune miniseries wraps up, with various characters undergoing some big changes. These prequel series don’t really have single plots, and instead just show us what various characters were up to in the years before the first Dune novel. This means that a final issue doesn’t really resolve much, except maybe to show Leto and Jessica getting closer to one another. In that way, they are more like the comics of yesteryear, where plot lines could run for ages before culminating, and I think this might be the aspect of the Dune comics I enjoy the most.
The Flash #5 – I’ll admit that when I heard Simon Spurrier was taking over the Flash, I worried that the emphasis was going to shift somewhere strange, and the strong familial ties that make a Wally-Flash comic so good were going to be ignored. I have no such concerns anymore, as Spurrier has managed to meld the weird extra-dimensional speed force, Morrisonian concepts he’s playing with to Wally’s deep bond to his biological and speed force families. This issue focuses on Jai, his son, who is struggling with depression and strange manifestations of his powers (he teleports to Wally whenever he is startled). This issue has a lot of heart and some oddball science, as well as more insight into Grodd than we’ve ever seen before. I also continue to believe that this comic might feature the best art of Mike Deodato’s long career; he’s doing amazing things with layout, but also his character work makes the weirdest things believable.
GODS #4 – I enjoy Jonathan Hickman’s work on this book, even if I don’t fully grasp the two orders he’s retconned into Marvel existence yet, or what they are ultimately for. He has Wyn and Dr. Strange face the disaffected product of the In-Betweener’s social experiment, as the larger plot slowly starts to reveal itself. Valerio Schiti’s art is nice, and the characters are interesting, even if none of them have exactly grabbed me yet.
Green Arrow #8 – I’m really enjoying Joshua Williamson’s work on this book. When this issue opens, it seems that Ollie has been killed by the villain Onomatopoeia, and Connor is determined to avenge him. Williamson is advancing his Amanda Waller story here, but also giving plenty of space for Ollie and his family to shine. I love that Phil Hester drew this issue – the first time I really got into GA was during his run with Kevin Smith, and it’s so good to see him back for more than a few pages.
Hexagon Bridge #5 – Richard Blake’s Surrealist pan-dimensional opus gets a little more abstract as Adley crosses the bridge to join Staden, the AI exploring the other dimension for her parents. Adley is not expecting what she finds, and Blake uses his languid storytelling to share more images of this strange, ever-shifting world. It’s a very beautiful book, and while the story moves kind of slowly, I wouldn’t really want it any other way.
The Holy Roller #3 – Rick Remender is working with some film or TV writers on this series, and it’s odd because the whole thing just feels like it’s being made by him and artist Roland Boschi. Our hero gets locked up and into a fight with a bunch of Nazis before making bail and receiving a strong suggestion to leave town. Levi doesn’t really want to stick around, but there has to be some reason for him to start dressing like the bowling-themed vigilante we keep getting shots of on the covers of this book. This is fun, in a Scumbag sort of way, but also makes some pointed comments on the state of America, in a Scumbag sort of way.
The Immortal Thor #6 – I am still on the fence about this book. I found my attention wandering as Loki tells Thor about something that happened to them when they were still young, but I do appreciate some of the metanarrative stuff that Al Ewing is doing, pinning Loki into a certain role, while also touching on Marvel history and the existence of Marvel comics in the Marvel universe. The concepts are cool, but the execution is not grabbing me yet, again. I am liking Martín Cóccolo’s art a lot, and assume it won’t be long before he gets a lot more buzz.
Junior Baker The Righteous Faker #5 – At the end, I’m not sure I got everything I was supposed to get out of this series. Joe Casey’s cosmic books sometimes leave me behind, and the meeting between Dizzy and the cosmic being in this issue definitely lost me. I loved Ryan Quackenbush’s art in this series, but never really connected with the story.
Newburn #14 – Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips finally share Newburn’s origin with us, as we learn how he came to leave the police force and instead take on his strange role for New York’s major crime families. A lot of holes get filled in with this issue, and it’s pretty satisfying. This is a unique crime story, and while Zdarsky’s done a terrific job of building it, it seems like now he’s moving to tear things apart. It’s really good stuff.
The Penguin #6 – Now that Tom King has set up this series, and the Penguin is ready to make his move on Gotham, it’s time for a flashback issue, to show how he set himself up as the criminal mastermind he is. We see his early days, working for the Falcone family as a janitor and bartender, and how he connected with Batman as an informant. King gives the end of this issue an interesting twist, and artist Stevan Subic gives this story a real sense of atmosphere. I like how King uses different narrative voices to tell the story, but rarely lets us inside Oswald’s head; it keeps him much more interesting this way.
Project Riese #6 – Imagine an Indiana Jones movie that is set in a gigantic Nazi underground science city that has been taken over by aliens, which culminates in a crazy train chase with Soviet soldiers trying to steal the train’s gold. Zac Thompson and Jeff McComsey really had some fun with this series, which feels like it could be the start of a recurring series of miniseries. I’d be happy to see more stuff like this; it was wildly unpredictable and better than any action movie in this genre. Another win from Mad Cave.
Resurrection of Magneto #1 – I’m not sure how many series now Al Ewing has used to tell the story of Storm’s role as leader on Arakko, but that moves into this miniseries now, as Ororo learns from a dream that Magneto’s spirit/soul might be in trouble, and decides to go after him. She makes use of a visit to Adam Brashear to gain entry to the Waiting Room (and this builds on Ewing’s two Defenders miniseries), and learns a lot of things, as this touches on the Dominion issue that Kieron Gillen has been exploring in his corner of the X-books. I’m always going to be happy with a book that focuses on Ororo, long my favourite X-Man, and I like how Ewing writes her. The art, by Luciano Vecchio, is lovely. I do like the idea of Magneto returning, as he has also become a favourite character of mine, and I’m curious to see how this is going to connect with the events of Fall of the House of X.
Titans: Beast World #5 – After what happened last issue, it’s time for Amanda Waller to clean up the problem of the remaining beast-ified people of the Earth, and her solution is to exterminate them. The Titans don’t agree with this, and while Cyborg prepares for his plan, Nightwing confronts Waller. This is a solid issue with art by Ivan Reis again. This event could have taken place in the regular Titans book, for the extent to which it’s focused on them, and given that no other heroes appear in this issue. I’m looking forward to how this ends, and maybe an explanation as to why the character that was killed last issue is on the cover of the next one…
X-Force #48 – When the Beast attacks X-Force’s little outpost in the Arctic, Sage reveals a plan to deal with him that might just lead to the redemption of the character and a resetting of everything that has made him worse than Magneto in the last twenty years. I like the idea of getting old Hank back, although it leads me to suspect that we are heading for a grand reset in general when the Krakoan and Fall eras end soon.
The Week in Music:
Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru – Jerusalem – I hadn’t heard of Emahoy Gebru until I learned of her death last year, in her early 90s. A nun in Ethiopia, Gebru composed a number of solo piano pieces that float somewhere between jazz and classical music (if any of these terms have any actual meaning). Jerusalem gathers tracks from a pair of albums she recorded and released starting in the 60s. They are sparse constructions recorded in large rooms with a lot of tone, and there is something mystical and magical about them. I listened to this compilation a number of times before realizing that it’s something I needed to own. These pieces really worm their way into my consciousness when I listen, moving from background to foreground until I stop whatever I was doing and just pay attention.
Tatsuro Murakami – in/naka – Murakami is a recent discovery for me; he’s a Japanese ambient guitar artist living in Brazil, and his stuff is lovely. I’ve been listening to a lot of ambient music in the last few years, and still don’t really have the vocabulary to discuss it, except to say that it’s peaceful and beautiful, in a time lacking both of those things. It’s good for the soul.
