Best Comic of the Week:
Somna #3 – This DSTLRY series by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay is absolutely beautiful. Ingrid stands accused of being a witch, and her husband, the local witch hunter, is unable to do much to help her. We’ve seen that Ingrid has been having dreams, which usually cause the art to shift from being by Cloonan to being by Lotay, but as this issue continued, that firm boundary starts to blur, making us wonder what is really happening. The high production quality of this book really helps enhance the wonderful art. I see that DSTLRY has a lot of books on their schedule, and they are mostly by creators of this caliber, so I’m pretty excited to see what’s next. It’s been ages since I’ve seen new art from Cloonan, so I’m sad that this ended.
Quick Takes:
Alan Scott: Green Lantern #5 – Alan and the Red Lantern continue their fight, and in the middle of it we learn the revised history of the Starheart, which power’s Alan’s ring, and how it’s connected to the Crimson Flame. I’m finding this series interesting, as DC once again plays around with the history of its oldest characters, and can see how this story supports what’s going on in the Justice Society series, but now this book is starting to run as late as that one, which is frustrating.
Black Hammer: The End #6 – After ten years and many miniseries, Jeff Lemire brings his excellent Black Hammer series to an end. This issue has just about everyone in it, while the combined heroes and villains of a few worlds work together to try to stop Anti-God in Spiral City, and at the same time, Lucy, Abe, and the others face down the evil Black Hammer on our Earth. Lemire and his artists created a unique world in these series; it’s very clearly patterned on the DC Universe, and the fight against Anti-God is very Crisis on Infinite Earths, but all of this was done with a more modern approach. This last series was drawn by Malachi Ward, who took over from Dean Ormston a while ago, and it looked great. Ward balances a lot of different characters (and a few versions of some of them) in this issue, and it must have taken forever to draw. I like how Lemire leaves the door open for space to return, but it does look like this is The End, and it all goes out very well. I’ll miss these characters.
Daredevil #7 – DD keeps getting visited by his sins, demons that keep possessing people he knows. This time around, it’s Wolverine who turns up in Matt’s way (which doesn’t really track with how busy he’s been during the Fall of the House of X, but whatever) and they have a pretty brutal fight. Aaron Kuder draws this fight so well, focusing on individual limbs or the slashing of Logan’s claws. It’s a cool issue, but I’m ready for these random guest appearances to stop detracting from the main story.
Detective Comics #1083 – Batman’s battle with Dr. Hurt continues in the desert while Question continues to move against the Orghams in Gotham. I am really enjoying this series under Ram V and a variety of artists, and am surprised by the scope of this storyline (which doesn’t seem to get mentioned anywhere else in Batman’s myriad titles). I love long arcs like this, and am pleased to see the amount of latitude being given to V for it.
The Flash #7 – Ramón Pérez come in to draw this issue, which looks great, but is a jarring change from Mike Deodato’s usual approach to this series. Bart and Max find themselves with the Linear Men, and Barry starts to become unhinged because of his inability to find Wally. This story, under Simon Spurrier, is getting stranger with each issue, but I trust him to take us somewhere rewarding with it. This is not really like any previous Flash run I’ve read.
GODS #6 – I’ve struggled to connect with this series, but with this issue I think I figured it out a little better. Basically, I think that Jonathan Hickman is doing his best version of a Neil Gaiman comic with GODS. Basically, he’s mapping a Sandman-like sensibility onto the Marvel Universe, which isn’t really built for that kind of thing. In this issue, Aiko convinces the Fox to take her to see the Tribunal as she attempts to correct something she feels guilty about. Along the way, she meets a number of fantastical creatures that require her to make an agreement with them, which has consequences later. I enjoy this book as I read it, and really like Valerio Schiti’s art, but still find this book to be a little incongruent with the world it’s set in. Hickman makes some use of established cosmic characters, but the various organizations he’s retconned into the Marvel Universe are still poorly explained and don’t feel all that necessary. I’ve heard that this title is ending soon, and Hickman is once again moving on to other things, and while I think that’s a shame (because he so rarely finishes what he starts, and I find that frustrating), I don’t think I’ll miss this book all that much.
Green Arrow #10 – Ollie and Connor go searching for Roy, which means they are working for Amanda Waller, but cautiously so. Their journey has them meeting up with even more archers, including some that Ollie didn’t know still existed after all of the revamps in the DC universe (I’m glad to see he’s as confused as to the status quo as I am). I’m liking this series, and am surprised that any writer is acknowledging that the Heroes in Crisis series even happened. Joshua Williamson is interesting; he’s writing so many of the central DC books right now, and it makes them all feel essential to a larger story.
The Incredible Hulk #10 – Hulk’s time in New Orleans continues, as he searches for Charlie and has a chat with the ghost of a Pinkerton who has been dead for a while. I like the horror approach that Phillip Kennedy Johnson and guest artist Danny Earls are using here, but feel like this issue was a little too decompressed.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #18 – I’m increasingly becoming disenchanted with Cody Ziglar’s run with Miles Morales. He’s done some interesting work with Miles, but I find his plots a little hard to understand, and he’s relying on some 90s style storytelling, where people develop new abilities out of nowhere, a little too often. This issue has Miles and his friends searching for Rabble so they can help her, while at the same time she connects with Gao and her crew, giving them all costume upgrades that are universally ugly. This three hundredth legacy numbering special was expensive, and I was attracted to the idea that some of Miles’s previous artists (David Marquez, Sra Pichelli, and Juann Cabal) were contributing, but I feel like none of these artists were given the space to exhibit their strengths or what they brought to Miles’s history. Regular artist Federico Vicentini’s work is hard to follow, and in that way matches with Ziglar’s writing. Where I really got lost was when Miles started to tap into his venom power so his suit would glow. What is the point of that? And how many months has it been since we’ve seen his family and non-powered friends? This book needs a quiet issue, badly.
Newburn #16 – Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips wrap up their excellent noir series this month, and I’m sad to see it go. Newburn has worked as a bit of a private investigator for the crime families of New York, dealing with any moves they might make against each other, in a delicate system of checks and balances. At the end of the series, Newburn is done, having finally irritated his bosses a few too many times, and we get to see how Emily, his assistant, manages in the same role. It’s a nice bookend to a very good series. It’s nice to see Zdarsky doing something so serious, and Phillips is becoming every bit the artist that his father Sean is.
Nights #6 – Gray finally learns all about herself as the conflict happening in her head plays out in a water park, and Vince does everything he can to get to her and protect her. I really love this book, and how unconventional everything about it is. Wyatt Kennedy started this out as a weird sitcom kind of book, but now we’ve got secretive paramilitary organizations, old gods, and even more secrets tied into the very sweet story of Vince’s crush on a very old sorta-vampire. Luigi Formisano does incredible work connecting the weird, the mundane, and the absolutely fantastical in this series.
The Penguin #8 – The story is back in the present with this issue, as Oswald returns to Gotham and makes a point of walking around doing nothing criminal, aside from having a violent meeting with the Riddler. One thing that confused me, though, is that this issue has James Gordon as Commissioner of police, something that is not correct in current continuity. It had me questioning if the story was happening in the past still, but that doesn’t work either. Is this series not in continuity? I know things like this shouldn’t bother me, but they really do.
Predator: The Last Hunt #2 – Theta’s found other humans near a downed Predator stasis ship, and gathers a crew to go looking for the aliens’ main storage facility. I didn’t remember this, but learned from the web that John Schaeffer, the man they found, first appeared in the first Dark Horse Predator comics, and is the brother of Dutch, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the first movie. It’s cool that Ed Brisson is honoring the earlier stuff like this. I’ve enjoyed Theta’s adventures from the beginning, and continue to like this book.
Rise of the Powers of X #3 – This is a big issue, as Charles Xavier confronts a young Moira MacTaggert before her powers manifest (meaning he can reset the entire current Marvel timeline by shooting her, which he is considering doing). At the same time, Moira in the present makes contact with the Enigma Dominion. The stakes in this issue are very high, and Kieron Gillen does a fantastic job of showing just how morally lost Xavier is. He’s always been a difficult character to like, but Gillen is good at giving us a peep at what that means for him, as he lives with the knowledge of being so compromised. RB Silva’s art is lovely in this book, but it’s kind of clear that he’s never really met thirteen year olds (young Moira looks like she’s six or seven). I find this book to be very divorced from what is happening in the Fall of the House of X series, and I’m still wondering if we are moving towards a timeline reset as the end of the Krakoan era.
The Six Fingers #2 – This companion series to The One Hand is good, providing a different perspective on big scenes in that series, but my continuity-raised brain got thrown when it became obvious that everyone knows about the strange script found painted on walls at the scenes of One Hand murders, but I could have sworn in the first issue of the other book, we learned that the writing was kept secret. Anyway, I like how Dan Watters and Ram V are collaborating on these books. It’s a cool concept. I also really like Sumit Kumar’s art. I’m glad I started picking this series up.
Ultimate Spider-Man #3 – This issue brings about Peter’s first meetings with Bullseye and the Green Goblin as he tries to figure out why the GG has been targeting buildings owned by Wilson Fisk. Jonathan Hickman is doing a fine job of balancing Peter’s life with his desire to get into the superhero game, although the way his daughter is involved, while his wife and son are being kept out of it reminds me a lot of the Baker family in Grant Morrison’s Animal Man. I really like having Ben and Jonah working together, providing some amusement to the story and helping drive the plot forward. Marco Checchetto is the perfect artist for this book, although I do kind of wish he was able to make some changes to the Spider-Man suit. I think about how he remade Daredevil’s look (at least twice), and feel strongly that he should have been allowed to cut loose on the designs. The Green Goblin and Bullseye are a little too generically MCU for me too.
Wolverine #46 – Sabretooth has Logan convinced he’s helping him on an old Team X mission, while they are actually raiding one of Forge’s labs. Quentin, who is just a head in a box now, can tell that Creed has complicated feelings for Logan, and that makes this a little more interesting. I am concerned that this storyline, having to build up to issue fifty, is running a little long without much forward movement.
X-Force #50 – The big conclusion of this series isn’t really all that big. The team confronts Beast, with the help of the other Beast and Wonder Man, and then have to be more or less status quo again for the Sabretooth War, robbing them of a big finish. I don’t think that Beast can be redeemed, but hopefully this new version of him will be put on a better path. This series, under the pen of Ben Percy, was never quite impressive, but it was pretty alright most of the time. As X-Force is more of a concept than an actual team, I’m sure we’ll see it again in some new form.
Zorro: Man of the Dead #3 – Sean Gordon Murphy is an amazing creator, and he’s on quite a run this year since joining forces with Massive Comics. His take on Zorro is novel and impressive; his Zorro is a traumatized young man who believes he is the legendary hero, even though his sister keeps telling him he isn’t. Together they try to save their town from the local cartel, and have to deal with their paths and choices. Murphy’s art is exciting and detailed, and the story moves at a great pace.
The Week in Music:
Ruth Goller – Skyllumina – It’s hard to describe this album, which is on the usually very dependable International Anthem label. Ruth Goller plays bass (electric and acoustic) and sings while accompanied by drums, vibraphone, or something else. But these aren’t really songs that she’s playing, they’re more like deconstructions of songs. There will be some notes on the bass, and she’ll sing some words (or maybe just some syllables), but none of it really connects to much. I can’t really decide if I like this album or not, but I don’t see myself ever putting it on in the car or while I’m hanging out with another person.
Jean-Michel Blais – Sérénades – Blais has returned to his beautiful album, Aubades, and remixed or reworked it into this EP, which revisits the same melodies, but strips them down even further so they are just Blais and his piano. This is lovely music to relax to, and I’m happy I finally got a physical copy of it (a bit of a theme this week).
Cleo Sol – Gold – Cleo dropped two albums late in 2023, and it’s taken this long for physical copies to be released and to make their way into my hands. Gold is a gorgeous and lush collection of soulful R&B songs by Cleo and her producer, Inflo. A Cleo Sol album is different from a Sault album, despite the fact that it’s the same two artists working together, providing a more focused exploration of the singer’s state of mind. I don’t have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to fully describe this album.
Cleo Sol – Heaven – The second of Cleo Sol’s two albums leans a lot more into her faith, which is something we’ve seen a lot more in Sault projects too. It’s another album of Cleo singing over Inflo instrumentals, so it’s lush, warm, and totally gorgeous. I’m so happy these are in my collection now!
Dinner Party – Dinner & Dessert – I didn’t expect that this would ever be released in physical form, but life is good sometimes. Dinner Party is the group made up of Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, and 9th Wonder, all people whose music has had a big place in my life. They put out their Dinner Party EP a few years back, followed by the Dessert remix EP, which added a few rappers and others to the party. Now they’re available on a single disc, and it’s nice to revisit this fun album. I still think that Phoelix sounds a lot like Anderson .Paak on Freeze Tag, which is the best track here. This is a solid release and worth revisiting.
