The Best Comic of My Week:
The New Gods #5 – Ram V and Evan Cagle (this time with a guest sequence by Andrew MacLean) continue to give us one of the most exciting and original comics being published by one of the Big Two at the moment. The war in New Genesis takes a bad turn as Highfather discovers just how powerful his foes are, and on Earth, Orion continues to try to kill a child being protected (at his request) by Mister Miracle and Big Barda. The cover of this issue is a bit misleading and gives away the ending, but other than that, this is a terrific issue. I love the dynamism and complexity of Cagle’s artwork, and have never found the New Gods so interesting.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Flash #2 – As Wally’s story continues, we learn a little more about what happened when he got his powers, and watch as some familiar looking government operatives go after him. Jeff Lemire’s thrown out just about everything familiar about Wally, Barry, and their power set to make this series unique and new, and he’s caught my interest with it. I like Nick Robles’s art a lot, and am genuinely interested in seeing where this leads. I want to know more about the Rogues, as they appear in the Absolute Universe, and am curious about how Wally seems to be able to access all moments in his life.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #38 – Despite the fact that I know I can trust Mark Waid to write great comics, I’ve never tapped into this new World’s Finest series, which tells stories from the early days of Superman and Batman’s friendship. Now that it’s home to half of a crossover with Justice League Unlimited, I felt I had to pick this up, and I enjoyed it. Gorilla Grodd is trying to take over the world, or something, and Batman, Superman, and Flash head to Gorilla City, which only Flash knows about at this point, to stop him. The connection to the JLU storyline is clear, and answers the questions I had about the timeline for that story, while also providing some good old fashioned superhero action. DC has really been putting out some good comics of late.
Detective Comics #1096 – Tom Taylor’s first story ends with the revealing of who has been behind the murders of young people in Gotham, and all the secrets of the people behind the longevity drug that Bruce is taking laid bare. This has been a good run, even if I think it’s time to stop retconning more layers onto Bruce’s parents. I like Mikel Janín’s artwork a lot, so always look forward to him being on a book.
Exceptional X-Men #8 – Alex, one of Kitty’s students, has been captured by Mr. Sinister, and replaced with a poorly-programmed clone. It’s nice to see this nascent team deal with an actual threat, as writer Eve Ewing continues to focus on their day-to-day lives. This book has been growing on me after a rough start, and it’s interesting to see how Ewing is taking such a slow approach to building the series (at a time when slow and steady rarely wins the sales race). I am finding this to be a quality read, although there are some sections that are hard to swallow (such as the massive panic when there was a small fire in a vintage store).
Iron Man #7 – This run is so strange, but I like that about it. Tony’s decided that the best way to stop Emperor Doom is by doing business with him, so he backpedals on his earlier vow to rid Stark Enterprises of weapons (again), and instead arranges through a fight with Victorious, to do business with the world dictator. The story can be a little hard to follow, and I think it’s strange that the ex-SHIELD agents Calvary is featured so prominently here, but it’s an interesting book.
Nightwing #125 – This series takes a strange shift with this issue, ignoring some key events of the last issue (like the fact that the head of Spheric Industries ripped her face off in front of the Mayor, and we still don’t know who she is) to start a new story, about a cop version of Marvel’s Scourge of the Underworld. Commissioner Sawyer starts investigating after one of her officers is murdered, and she learns of an urban myth about a masked figure who keeps the police in line, sort of. This issue is drawn by the incomparable Francesco Francavilla, which is pretty exciting news. I love his style, and Captain Hollow, the cop-killer, is clearly of his design. I like that writer Dan Watters is trying something new with this book, but I do think that some dangling plot threads need to be dealt with sooner than later.
Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #3 – Kylo Ren’s exploration of his grandfather’s past leads him to a confrontation with the Hutt that once owned young Anakin. In typical Kylo Ren fashion, he has a bit of a temper tantrum, and we see that this series is going to continue to tour places of significance to Vader during the prequel trilogy. It’s a curious choice for Marvel to make this book now, but Charles Soule seems to still have some things to say about Vader, and I’m happy for any excuse to see Luke Ross drawing this world.
Summer of Superman Special #1 – Man, there are a lot of random Superman-related specials coming out lately. This one features Lana Lang’s wedding to John Henry Irons, Steel, which of course gets interrupted by an appearance by Validus, a time-lost Legion of Super-Heroes villain. It’s a nice issue, with some good insight into Superman’s life, which also confused me a little, continuity-wise. The story is written by Mark Waid, Dan Slott, and Joshua Williamson, and helps to set up some upcoming storylines, and includes a little hint as to where the Absolute Universe is likely headed. Jorge Jimenez’s art is very nice, and like much of Williamson’s run, it leaves a good aftertaste.
Superman #25 – In yet another oversized issue (there are so many!) Superman confronts the truth about Lex Luthor and Mercy, especially after Mercy revives an experimental powered clone of Lex after worrying that the real one had gone soft. It’s a solid issue that continues to explore Lex’s personality and relationship to Metropolis, while delivering a ton of exciting action sequences. I like how Joshua Williamson has been writing this book.
Titans #22 – The team now knows that they’re having to face Deathstroke again, and that he’s putting together a team of his own to face them. Most of this issue is given over to Slade’s having freed Killer Frost and some other villains. I’m liking this run, but have a hard time accepting Slade as a standard villain, especially after the brilliant run that Priest wrote a few years ago. He’s too complex a character to fall backwards.
Ultimate Wolverine #4 – I found it interesting that, during a long sequence in which the Winter Soldier (Logan) breaks containment in the Russian facility where he’s held, Chris Condon and Alessandro Cappuccio chose to show us a fight between a battered wolf and an aged bear. The fight is brutal, as is the dialogue we “hear” throughout the scene. Condon’s approach to this series has been interesting, as Logan is a complete mystery to us throughout. We’re slowly piecing things together, and can see how different the experiences of mutants has been in the Ultimate Universe (I’m not reading Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men, so am surprised to keep finding key X-Men characters in these other books). Cappuccio was a good choice for this title.
Wolverine #8 – I’ve been enjoying Saladin Ahmed’s run so far, but this 400th anniversary issue left me with a bit of a bad taste. The first story wraps up the Adamantine storyline, except it doesn’t, leaving the door open for another conflict between Logan and that mysterious sentient metal. The second story has Logan and Leonard, the teen Wendigo, waking up to find themselves captured by Arcade. I hate Arcade as a villain, and don’t understand how he’d be aware of Logan’s relationship with Leonard, given that it’s in the earliest stages. After that, Leonard’s fate becomes a reason for the next storyline, which is looking to be retconning some of the stuff from Origins. I think this is my biggest problem with this issue; I hated the original Origins miniseries, which told of Logan’s earliest days, and I hated the Wolverine: Origins story that filled in gaps in his history. So much of Ahmed’s work so far is indebted to those books, and I’m of the age that wanted Wolverine to remain a mysterious character. I have some dread about what’s next. Rounding out the issue is a gorgeous but forgettable story set in historical Japan by Daniel Warren Johnson. I’d love to see him draw a full Wolverine story one day. I don’t know, this series was going well, but reading this issue felt like deflating a balloon.
Wonder Woman #20 – Changing the tone of this series, we have a story about Olympus. Hippolyta, Diana’s mother, has been accused of murdering Ares, the god of war, and Diana has brought Batman to the home of the gods to help her investigate. Tom King does his formalistic thing, and guest artist Guillem March more than rises to the occasion. The art is great, the story is amusing, but I can’t help but find myself getting a little bored with King’s run. The fight against the Sovereign took way too long to play out, and there is still a lot left unresolved, making this little side story feel a little distracting. This is a very good comic, but I am not connecting with it the way I did earlier in the run.
X-Factor #9 – With just one more issue left, writer Mark Russell is committed to not writing any of these characters like they’ve been written before. Havok and Frenzy are sent on a secret mission, while Angel is sent on another, which has him confronting Polaris. I’ve struggled with this series, and don’t mind that it’s coming to an end. They tried, but this book never worked.
The Week in Music:
Macie Stewart – When The Distance Is Blue – I’m always going to listen to anything coming from the International Anthem label, so my lack of familiarity with Macie Stewart’s name didn’t deter me. This is an odd album of experimental piano music, cut with lots of field recordings and atmospheric sounds. It’s a little slippery, but I like the soundscapes that Stewart constructs here.
Myles Bullen – Liminal Spaces – It’s hard to classify this album, as it is a unique blend of rap, post-punk, and folk, with a dash or two of songs that belong on an album for kids. Myles Bullen is a very good writer, and has an interesting voice. His ukulele raps owe something to Ceschi, while he could easily be seen as following the path set out by Kimya Dawson. His songs are about recovery and isolation, but have a hopefulness that is endearing. There are a few earworms on this album.
Adrian Younge – Something About April III – After many years, Adrian Younge returns to his trilogy of albums ostensibly about an interracial couple. This time around, his music has been heavily influenced by his trips to Brazil, and he has crafted his songs to reflect their sounds and approaches. This is a lovely album of funky soul music, and I recommend it to people who have enjoyed his work scoring things like the Luke Cage TV show.
