I came close to finishing this week’s comics, but life got in the way again.
Best Comic of the Week:
Gilt Frame #2 – Matt Kindt’s wonderful longform take on detective fiction, a collaboration with his mother Margie Kraft Kindt, continues and becomes even more wonderful with this second issue. The first introduced us to a great-aunt and nephew team of American amateur sleuths whose trip to Paris to look into the provenance of some antique chairs leads them to discover a murder at the gallery where they were conducting their business. This issue introduces a French detective who spends the issue interviewing witnesses, including our two protagonists. The story unfolds along typical patterns, but the depth of character development and Kindt’s unique art make this story a delight. I don’t really get into Hercule Poirot style stories often, but this one, with its fascinating set of characters, has me intrigued. I like how the narrative shifts to focus on the French detective, and the way in which each new interviewed suspect seems more guilty than the one before. It’s a very good book, and a substantial read (it’s a thick squarebound comic).
Quick Takes:
Absolute Power: Task Force VII #6 – It looks like this book was released out of sequence with the Super Son special. One of the Amazos heads to Themyscira to go after the Amazons, and it led to a bunch of characters I love getting mentioned, which might turn into something or might not. I like how each issue of this series has a different creative team, but then ends up checking in on Steve Trevor as he moves around the bowels of Amanda Waller’s base. It’s a cool approach to tie-in, instead of having a bunch of one-offs.
Absolute Power: Super Son #1 – I found this special a little confusing, as we joined Jon Kent in his fight against the control of the Brainiac Queen. Jon’s fight happens both in the real world and in his mind, and while I like how Sina Grace and Nicole Maines write him, I find that Jon Timms and Travis Mercer’s art can be confusing. Adding to the confusion is the similarity in Huntress’s and Dreamer’s costumes (which Huntress is this, anyway?). I miss the Superman title that Tom Taylor wrote featuring Jon, so was happy to see him get some spotlight, and agree that this is a corner of Absolute Power that deserved some more space. I also think it’s odd that DC has spent time building up Dreamer’s character, yet killed her off pretty casually; I’m guessing we’ll be seeing her again soon.
Avengers #18 – The team has to deal with the threat of Hyperion coming to destroy the Earth, and they know that they have very few options to stop him. I like how Jed MacKay has the Avengers approach this problem, while underscoring how the team works differently from other super-teams, specifically the X-Men. It’s a solid issue with terrific art by Valerio Schiti. I like when MacKay writes unconventional stories like this.
The Body Trade #1 – I am a fan of Zac Thompson’s writing, so when I saw that he had a new series at Mad Cave with the artist Jok (of In Hell We Fight! fame), I quickly put it on my preorder list. This is a dark series, focusing on a shady father whose young son died after spending two years in a coma, which we learn was the father’s fault. He’s upset when he learns that his son’s body was donated to science in exchange for his medical bills being forgiven, and he sets out to investigate the corporation, which we see is even more shady than he is. Jok’s art reminds me a lot of John McCrea’s, and he’s the right person to draw this book full of big trucks and ex-military looking dudes working security. Everything looks kind of dirty and shabby, and I am drawn right into it. Thompson does a lot of body horror stories, and I’m hoping this doesn’t get too grim.
Fantastic Four #25 – For this oversized anniversary issue of Ryan North’s excellent run, we find the team once again shunted to an alien world that is very alien to ours when they try to explore a dome Doctor Doom has constructed around all of Latveria (reminds me of what the Maker is doing in the Ultimate Universe). While staying there, Reed starts to work out a way to get home, and Johnny discovers love with a decidedly non-humanoid resident of the planet. Of course, because this is a Ryan North book, there is a strange science aspect to the story when the team realizes they might not have actually left Earth. This has been an exceptional run, and it continues to delight and surprise.
The Power Fantasy #2 – With the second issue of Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard’s new Image series, we get a better idea of the book’s premise and how it’s going to proceed. The Atomics are a small number of powered people who live on Earth alongside, but separate from, regular humans. In the text piece, Gillen explains how this series is his response to some of the ideas he was playing with in his Immortal X-Men run. I was getting more of a Jupiter’s Legacy or Authority vibe from the first issue, but things after reading his essay, I see this more clearly as an attempt to posit a real world response to these powers. In that way, this reminds me of his series Über, which had super soldiers being deployed realistically in the Second World War. It’s still early days, but I’m getting more invested in this story, as the world, and the various Atomics, react to the fact that one of their most powerful just killed the President of the United States and his staff as a more balanced reaction to their attempts to kill another Atomic. Wijngaard’s art is very nice, and I’m very intrigued to see where this goes.
Precious Metals #4 – This continues to be a deeply weird series that confuses me a little, but is a terrific ride. Ian Bertram’s art is so fluid and creative that I find myself getting lost on each page. It’s hard to summarize this story, and it’s impossible to predict where it’s headed. Little Bird, the book for which it’s a prequel, was more conventional, but this is a lot wilder.
Star Wars #50 – Charles Soule’s run comes to an end with this oversized issue that makes some interesting choices. The story is about Luke and his friends discovering a weapon that could be used to remotely assassinate someone, and they decide to use it against the Emperor, which all sounds good, until they discover that there would be unintended consequences with this plan. The story is framed as a discussion between the older Luke Skywalker and young Ben Solo, during the time when Ben was his apprentice. It’s a good issue, and has a lot of what I’ve liked about Soule’s run. What’s odd, though, is that Marvel’s series are looking to be jumping from here to a post-Return of the Jedi timeline, with at least two Battle of Jakku stories coming up. It’s odd that more isn’t done to lead directly into Return of the Jedi. I was hoping that we’d eventually see how Leia came to possess Bosch’s armor, and a few other minor plot points like that. I don’t yet know what the next Star Wars series will bring, but it’s clear that the entire line is much diminished at Marvel now, and that’s too bad. I also like that they aren’t constantly flooding us with miniseries that weren’t well thought-out though.
Superman #18 – Superman and Zatanna continue to travel the shadow paths in their hopes of securing help for Earth’s heroes, although to get there, Superman has to make an interesting promise to Neron. Joshua Williamson does a good job of supporting the Absolute Power event and using it to advance some of his longer storylines, like the one about Lex Luthor’s amnesia. I enjoy this run, and am really liking how Jamal Igle has refined his style for it.
Time Waits #1 – DSTLRY has been putting out nothing but hits lately, and I was excited to see that Chip Zdarsky was going to be writing this new book with co-writer David Brothers, and with art by local artist Marcus To. It starts off great, introducing us to Blue, a quiet man who just wants to garden and learn to bake a cake for his small town sheriff wife. She seems interested in adopting a kid who she seems to spend a lot of on the job time with, but otherwise, things seem really good for them, except that Blue keeps seeing visions from his past, which reveal to the reader that he is a time traveling black ops operative who disagreed with the people he was working with on a mission to our era. Zdarsky and Brothers set this story up very well, and leave us with plenty of things to wonder about in order to get us to return for the next issue. To, who is also drawing X-Force right now, is very capable. This book is less showy than most other DSTLRY books, which have had more unconventional artists, but it’s a solid read and worth picking up.
Transformers #12 – This is a huge issue, as Optimus Prime puts a stop to Shockwave’s plans, but in the process, creates a rift with Cybertron (both literally and figuratively). There’s a lot of chaos in this issue, and I find that Jorge Corona’s art both embraces that and sometimes makes things hard to follow, but it really works. Now that this big arc is finished, I’m hoping for a quieter issue to help readers take stock of the ramifications of this one’s events, and to allow for more character development. I’m pleased to see that Daniel Warren Johnson is setting up a larger story here.
Ultimate Black Panther #8 – I’ve decided this is my last issue of UBP. It’s not that I don’t like the series, but it’s just too decompressed for me, especially if Marvel is going to insist on charging $5 for each issue. Bryan Hill has not done enough to differentiate the Ultimate T’Challa from the 616 one; there was an opportunity to reconceptualize the character, like we’ve seen with the X-Men, or to explore some aspects of the concept that we haven’t seen before. Instead, we’ve got a story about vibranium and another substance. It’s not held my attention enough, and Stefano Caselli’s very capable art is not enough of a reason to keep coming back for more. I’ll keep an eye on it, but I think I’m completely done here.
Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9 – Marc Spector is back, as is Khonshu, who has demanded that Marc kill the imposter that took his place. This is not something Marc wants to do, but if he doesn’t, he knows that Reese isn’t safe. This is an excellent, brutal issue, with fantastic art by Devmalya Pramanik, that wraps up this volume of Jed MacKay’s terrific Moon Knight run. I hate the constant relaunching, but I’m looking forward to the upcoming Fist of Khonshu relaunch next month. MacKay has done a phenomenal job of reinventing Moon Knight for the current age.
Wonder Woman #13 – This is a bit of an essential Absolute Power tie-in, as Wonder Woman and Robin free a bunch of the heroes that Amanda Waller’s imprisoned, in between bouts of Diana smooching with Steve Trevor. Tom King continues to take a very light approach to writing this series, which is odd given that his run started rather darkly. I’m hoping he’s going to get back to main story once this event is over.
X-Factor #2 – I’m still on the fence with this title, which is trying to be both X-Statix and maybe X-Force at the same time. It’s like writer Mark Russell can’t fully decide if he’s going for a satirical approach, or still wants to explore some of the more serious sides of the mutant experience in the post-Krakoan world. Havok is promoted to lead the team since Angel is in the hospital (is there any prominent X-Man more mistreated than Angel?), but Polaris wants to recruit him into a mutant underground that is so far poorly defined. The rest of the team does very little, and a few of the characters feel very off compared to how they’ve normally been portrayed. I do like Bob Quinn’s art, and hope that this book figures out its identity issues soon, as there is potential here.
X-Men #4 – The influence of the 90s on this series is unmistakable, as Cyclops sends a small team to stop Trevor Fitzroy, of all people, and his new Upstarts, from murdering a mutant on livestream. When I learned who Fitzroy is working for, I think I actually let out a groan, as it’s a character I really hate. We have at least been given a hint that something happened to Magneto, which must explain why he’s in a floating chair now, but this is yet another issue that didn’t give us a lot of development or space. After the last issue, I thought things might be improving, but now I’m not so sure. This book feels like a throwback, but not in the best way, and I’m surprised, as I’d expected more innovation and thoughtfulness from a writer like Jed MacKay. I really want to like this book, but after the disappointment in last week’s Uncanny, I’m starting to fear for this new era of X-title. It’s not resonating yet…
The Week in Music:
Robert Hood & Femi Kuti – Variations – I’m not sure what led to American techno legend Robert Hood and Nigerian Afrobeat scion Femi Kuti joining one another on stage in France, but the result is a pretty special album. Hood lays down some beats and soundscapes that Kuti floats all over on his saxophone. It doesn’t really sound like techno, or at all like Afrobeat, but instead becomes its own thing, fluid and unpredictable with the odd nod here or there to recognizable pieces. It’s a cool little project that didn’t get a lot of notice and was a little hard to find to add to my collection.
Angelo Outlaw – Axis of Time – I love the vibraphone, so this album automatically appealed to me. Outlaw plays vibes and marimba on this album of songs that he wrote alongside collaborators Vincent John and Maxwell Perla. None of these are artists I was familiar with before, but I appreciate the way they blend jazz and soul music on this album. I think this is an artist on the come up.
Brother Ali & unJUST – Love & Service – I’ve been a fan of rapper Brother Ali for a lot of years, and have seen him go through some pretty big life changes. This album, which came out a while ago, is the first he’s recorded since moving to Türkiye a few years ago, and represents the level of peace and wisdom he has achieved in his personal life. This album’s title serves as a thesis statement – the record is about love and service, and the place both hold in Ali’s life and in his interactions with others. It’s an incredibly warm album that tackles big issues, but also finds space for humour and some excellent features by artists like Roc Marciano, Aesop Rock, and Quelle Chris. unJUST’s beats are not like anything Ali has rapped over before, and the whole album is an example of how rappers can age and stay compelling. I’ve also just learned he’s got another album coming soon with Ant, his ‘regular’ producer, and that has me very excited.
