Best Comic of My Week:
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #7 – Marc and his team decide they need to take a new approach to dealing with Fairchild, which includes trying to stop his drug, Glitter, from being so addictive. They figure the best way to do that is to get Hank Pym to help them, which in turn leads to them disguising themselves as villains to threaten his daughter. It’s a wild issue that has some strong moments between Hank and Marc. I wish all of Jed MacKay’s comics were this good at balancing big moments with small ones; the character work he does in this book is top tier, and not matched in either his Avengers or X-Men books.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Green Lantern #1 – I was curious to see how Al Ewing was going to approach this book, given that the character on the cover is definitely not Hal Jordan. Hal’s still the main character, of this first issue at least, and I like that he, John Stewart, Jo Mullein, and Guy Gardner all know one another socially in the Absolute world before any craziness begins. These friends live in Evergreen Nebraska, where they go about their days, until a gigantic ‘Green Lantern’ symbol crashes onto the town, changing things forever. This issue moves pretty quickly, and I like the way Ewing has inverted expectations. Jahnoy Lindsay’s art is nice, if a little generic in places. This book and Absolute Flash feel like they have the most to do to prove themselves, but I’ll give Ewing an arc or two to see what he’s got planned.
Batgirl #6 – Cassandra’s efforts to rescue her mother, Shiva, while also confronting her feelings about the woman who didn’t raise her, culminates in an explosive fight against the Unburied. We learn just why they are after Shiva, and get some great action sequences from artist Takeshi Miyazawa. I’m most excited about the fact that the issue ends with Cass being sent to find Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger, one of my favourite DC characters who is never used enough. This is a great series, and I’m glad it’s continuing into a second arc.
JSA #6 – Jeff Lemire launched this series in the middle of some wild action, and things haven’t let up one bit since. A member of the Society dies as the team’s villains continue their attacks on many fronts, and the members who sided with Obsidian are not acting like themselves; Wildcat II even takes a life. I am drawn into the pacing of this story, and am enjoying the art of Diego Olortegui, which has admittedly been an acquired taste since the series began.
Justice League: The Atom Project #4 – I’m sure there are a number of people happy to see Captain Atom squaring off against Major Force again; it did bring me back to the days when I was a casual reader of Atom’s title. Anyway, writers Ryan Parrott and John Ridley tie this book more firmly to the Justice League United series, as the Atoms continue to try to help Captain Atom against his will. This is kind of an odd series, in that it’s a little hard to tell who the real hero of it is (was Ray Palmer always a bit of a jerk?). I do like Mike Perkins’s artwork a lot.
Juvenile #5 – I picked up the first issue of this miniseries by Jesús Orellana on an impulse, having been attracted to the fine artwork, and I’m glad I did. This was a post-super hero update on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, featuring a ward full of teenagers who have been raised to believe that an illness necessitates that they take medication and eventually undergo brain surgery. In truth, they have psychic powers that are being suppressed and eventually cut out of them, but in this one ward, the kids have stopped taking their pills. Orellana is good at everything in this comic; his characters are believable, and his art is fantastic. I recommend checking this series, which finished with this issue, out.
Let This One Be A Devil #2 – James Tynion IV, Steve Foxe, and Piotr Kowalski continue their odd story about a devil that lives in rural New Jersey. I’m really getting into this story, which is as much about the young educated man who feels out of place in his backwater town in the 1900s as it is about the folklore surrounding this possibly mythical beast. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and it’s so nice to see Kowalski’s art again, reminding me how much I miss Sex, which was a great Batman book.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32 – After a long stretch of non-stop action, it’s nice to get a little bit of time with Miles in therapy and at school before he gets embroiled in more problems. Now that he’s become an avatar of Anansi, he’s been roped into that god’s personal drama, which involves the revival of an old feud with Ares, the Greek god of war. Ares sends Zip Zephyr to attack Miles, and that leads to Thor and Hercules getting involved. It looks like Cody Ziglar is taking us into another story that isn’t typical for Miles, and I don’t know how I feel about that after we’ve gotten vampires and Deadpool. I should be happy when writers are pushing characters into new territory, but much of it is a bad fit.
Psylocke #6 – Something has been haunting or possessing Kwannon (or something like that), so she and Magik head to New Orleans to see if Deathdream can help. Alyssa Wong is hitting her stride with this book, which I’d expected to only last for the first five issues. We don’t know Kwannon very well, so it’s interesting to see how she reacts to these kinds of situations. I didn’t love the first story arc, but this one has started off a lot better.
The Secret Six #2 – With this issue, we start to get a better sense of the shape of this series, although it’s still a bit confusing (the crew from last issue dream-walked from Belle Reve to the House of Secrets, where they found Catman bleeding on the floor, and realize Deadshot was disguised as one of the prison guards). We learn why both Deadshot and the organization that took Amanda Waller are after her, although for conflicting reasons. We also dig a little more into Dreamer’s character. This issue didn’t do a whole lot for me, as some of the characters seem to not match how they’ve been written before, and the story is a little hard to follow.
West Coast Avengers #6 – The two Avengers teams square off over the Ultron question, and we learn of Tony’s secret plans in case his old enemy is really still his enemy. This is a solid issue.
The Week in Music:
Clipping. – Dead Channel Sky – Between the reference to Neuromancer in the album cover and the way the old school modem connection sound is repurposed as a beat on the first track, it’s not hard to imagine what Clipping. are going for on this new album. They have a track called Mirrorshades (featuring local stars Cartel Madras!), and basically use this album to further refine their noisy, industrial approach to hiphop. Rapper Daveed Diggs is as fast and potent as ever, and while some of the songs are not all that easy to listen to, they are impressive.
Lara Somogyi + Jean-Michel Blais – Désert – Jean-Michel Blais is one of my go-to musicians for quiet, contemplative piano music, and this album, which has him collaborating with harpist Lara Somogyi, is one of the most relaxing yet. They improvised these compositions during a single visit to Joshua Tree, and the result is an ambient/neo-classical homage to that landscape. It’s gorgeous.
Lavender Town – Lavender Town – I get the feeling that this Toronto jazz band is going to be huge. They are building a dedicated following of pretty young fans with their fusion of video game, anime, and hiphop covers that showcase their talents. They’ve started to create their own compositions as well, and this debut album (which is available on streaming but not on Bandcamp anymore) showcases their approach really nicely, while not being able to duplicate the power of their live performances. They remind me of BADBADNOTGOOD when they started out (and Lavender Town’s trumpet player is also on the latest BBNG album). This is a band to keep an eye on.
