I’m still working to get caught up, but I had time to read a lot of comics this last week, and it was great!
Best Comics of My Week:
Marvel Knights: The World To Come #1 & 2 – I knew that this series was being written by Priest, one of my all-time favourite superhero comics writers, and that it was being drawn by Joe Quesada, which is a rare thing. I also knew that Black Panther was involved, but I had no idea that this would basically be a sequel to Priest’s original Black Panther run, which is in my Top Five all-time favourite comics. In typical Priest fashion, the story is all over the place, as we see that the future is looking pretty bleak. An aged T’Challa is challenged for the throne, even though it’s become a largely figurehead position, and the identity (in a couple of ways) of his challenger came as a surprise. I was happy to see the return of characters like Everett K. Ross and Monica Lynne, and found the timelines printed in the back of the book helpful, as Priest likes to give readers pieces they have to assemble on their own. Quesada’s art is gorgeous, which is not a surprise. There are plenty of splash pages, but I feel like he’s not as flashy as he often is, preferring to let the art support the story fully. This is an odd comic, but I love it and am thankful to see Priest back doing what he does best.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Batman #9 & 10 – Batman attempts to infiltrate the mysterious Ark M in order to search for his friend Waylon, and finds a whole bunch of trouble. The Absolute version of Bane is introduced to us, and it appears he is an important person with regards to how these Arks are run. Batman is captured and experimented on for months, and we see during his multiple escape attempts that he is not the only person being experimented on here – we see hints of Clayface, Man-Bat, and others. Nick Dragotta is doing incredible work drawing this book; his designs of some of these characters are surprising, and his reworking of Bane is memorable.
Absolute Flash #4 & 5 – Wally and Grodd are still on the run, but meet Ralph and Sue Dibny who run a teen shelter. We also learn that some other beings escaped in the lab explosion that gave Wally his powers, and meet the Absolute version of Heat Wave. Like the Absolute Green Lantern book, this one is a little more decompressed than I would like, but I am interested in it. I like the art of AL Kaplan, who I guess is taking over this book? He has a way of making characters’ eyes extra twinkly.
Absolute Green Lantern #3 & 4 – Things are getting clearer here, as we start to understand how Jo ended up with Green Lantern powers, but still aren’t given much information about how Hal got the Black Hand. This book feels very decompressed and quick, but at the same time, Al Ewing is squeezing in a fair amount of plot and character development. I like how issue five references some of the stuff happening in the Absolute Superman title.
Absolute Superman #8 & 9 – We learn a lot in these two issues, as we get a good look at Ra’s Al Ghul, and get a better sense of who the Omega Men are, and what kind of technology they’re using. Jason Aaron has kept this book moving pretty quickly, but his character work is shining through more and more. I’m starting to really like these versions of both Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, as they both chafe under the leadership of their respective organizations. This book continues to impress me.
Aliens Vs. Avengers #4 – Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic wrap up their futuristic look at the end of the Marvel Universe at the hands of the xenomorphs. Mister Sinister purposely hosts a queen, adding his DNA, which has been loaded with various mutant traits, into the creature, just as the Wakandan Empire arrives to help the remaining heroes. This book is kind of brutal, but there’s no other way to tell a story like this, is there?
Aquaman #6 & 7 – Arthur finally finds his lost people, but things have changed in his absence. Before finding them, he has to reckon with a city of dead gods under the control of his new enemy, Dagon, and meets up with an obscure DC character whose presence doesn’t make a lot of sense. Jeremy Adams seems to be doing that a lot in his books lately (I’m thinking of the appearance of the original Blue Beetle in Green Lantern), and I’m not sure why. These characters don’t seem to be bringing much to the series they’re appearing in.
Avengers #27 & 28 – The storyline with the Masters of Evil wraps up as Captain America and Black Panther hold off the villains who have invaded their new home, and then have to figure out how to outsmart the Mad Thinker. This was an enjoyable story.
Batgirl #8 – 10 – I’ve been liking this series a lot, and appreciate that writer Tate Brombal is giving us Lady Shiva’s origin story, and also brings back Bronze Tiger, one of my favourite characters in the 80s. We learn a lot about Shiva and by extension, Cassandra, as she seeks out the Bronze Tiger, and ends up meeting the Jade Tiger along the way. Of course, they are quickly attacked by the cult that has been set up as the main villain in this series. Isaac Goodhart’s art in issue 8 is very nice (more and more, I keep seeing artists that remind me of David Lapham), but I was also really happy to see Takeshi Miyazawa return for the next two issues; no one is drawing fight scenes like him these days.
Batman And Robin #22 & 23 – This Momento storyline is starting to drag some, but I like how writer Philip Kennedy Johnson brought The Demon into the mix, and has been portraying the complexities of Bruce’s relationship with Damian. The art on this book, by Javi Fernandez and Miguel Mendonça, is very nice and surprisingly consistent in atmosphere considering that each issue has a different artist.
Birds of Prey #22 – 24 – I’m such a fan of this series. Kelly Thompson shows why this concept works so well in these issues, which have the team facing a group of villains who have managed to capture and take control of Barda, making them very formidable. Things look bleak – their headquarters are destroyed – but when all the team’s associates show up (except for Zealot), things get pretty interesting. Thompson writes these characters well, and Sami Basri is doing a fine job on the art. I do think it’s kind of funny that John Constantine gets included as basically the only male ‘bird’.
Bug Wars #5 – I don’t usually go for books like this, but Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar really drew me in with the first issue of this series. Now, the various types of bugs have united to fight Slade’s brother, who has just come out to the yard with his lawnmower again. At the same time, Slade seems to level up in terms of his power after a surprise meeting. This book is creative and interesting, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this first arc wraps up.
Daredevil #22 & 23 – I’m not sure what’s going on with this book, but I find that the covers are often representing things that happened in the previous issue, which is the case with issue twenty-three. I think there’s a deeper conversation to be had about John Romita Jr.’s art these days, as well, but I don’t want to be negative. These issues are fine. We find out who is behind the fungus stuff that’s been happening in Matt’s new girlfriend’s building (and writer Saladin Ahmed has a bit of fun at the expense of the manosphere), and then see what happens when a very modern European crime group tries to move in on Hell’s Kitchen. These are decent, if not very memorable, comics.
Extraordinary X-Men #10 – The fight with Sinister comes to its end as the kids in this series step up for one another in a big way. I’m enjoying this book, but find I like it least when it’s focused on big superhero fights; I prefer the quieter, more relational issues.
Farmhand #22 & 23 – As Rob Guillory gets closer to the end of this strange series, things get steadily more violent and consequential. Andrea and Tree fight to rescue Mikhail, the child assassin from the people who have him, but while they’re gone Thorne – or rather the entity residing in her body – makes her move and takes Zeke’s kids. There are only three more issues remaining in this series, so I expect that Guillory will keep upping the stakes. This has been a good series.
Giant-Size Dark Phoenix Saga #1, Giant-Size Age of Apocalypse #1, & Giant-Size House of M #1 – Kamala Khan’s cross-time adventures continue, and I have mixed feelings. I get the impression that a big part of the point of this is to push the narrative around Kamala being a mutant now, and debuting her ‘mutant powers’ which better match how she has been portrayed on TV, but at the same time, I’ve kind of enjoyed this revisiting of beloved and hated X-Men stories of the past (by which I mean both Age of Apocalypse, which caused me to drop the X-Titles for a few years, and House of M, which kind of ruined a lot of good runs). Anyway, I don’t hate these comics, but I’m not all that comfortable with the notion that they might be changing established continuity, although I imagine most writers will ignore that. I see that the end of this mini-event has been delayed, so I’m left wondering if these changes will be wiped away in the end.
Invincible Presents Battle Beast #2 & 3 – It’s so nice to see Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley together again, making insanely hyper-violent comics. Battle Beast has captured a sentient spaceship and a much-diminished former planetary ruler, and is forcing them to help him find threats that are powerful enough to kill him. They find a threat, he fights. The formula is pretty straight-forward, but the result is a fun comic.
JSA #8 – 10 – I was really happy to see a ‘Times Past’ style story featuring the All-Star Squadron, as Jeff Lemire set up what the Injustice Society is really after in their large-scale attack on the JSA. These three issues check in on every member of the team, as the bad guys learn the location of the Spear of Destiny, and our heroes have to go after them. I hope this title sticks around for a while, because it’s been a long time since we’ve had a Justice Society comic as good as this. I want there to be lots of time for character development and longer plots like this.
Justice League: The Atom Project #6 – This was an odd miniseries, especially in the way that it ended up being so connected to what’s going on in the parent JLU book, with the Atoms and Captain Atom having to fight the Legion of Doom. I really liked seeing Mike Perkins drawing a book like this, but I’d kind of expected it to wrap up the storyline around missing powers, and it didn’t really do that.
Kaya #26-28 – With this new story arc, Kaya finds herself increasingly on the outs with her small group. Razel is very focused on Jin, and the boy is becoming more and more entranced with his mentor, especially as his power grows, and an old friend turns up to join the group (which is not great for Kaya). They find a mine where beings are enslaved by the Atrians, and make plans to free them, which only helps to further expose the schisms in the small group. Wes Craig’s fantasy series continues to make me happy; his abstract art works really well here, and I really like the main characters.
Let This One Be A Devil #4 – James Tynion IV and Piotr Kowalski did an interesting job of digging into the legend of the Jersey Devil, with most of the story being focused on a young man who returned to the Pine Barrens after getting an education, and found that he really couldn’t fit in anymore. In this final issue, he goes into the woods to find his younger brother, who is hunting the beast that has been killing local livestock, and they confront some unexpected things. The end of this story works, but it also kind of doesn’t, as I’m not sure it really says anything about this creature or other cryptids. I feel like Zac Thompson and Eric Zawadzki are equally effective in their short backup feature about Ogopogo. Anyway, I liked this series and enjoyed seeing Kowalski’s art again.
Nullhunter #6 – 10 – This cyberpunk take on the labors of Hercules, by Michael Walsh and Gustaffo Vargas, is a pretty brutal reimagining of those classic tales. The series ends in a harsh, but fitting way. I’m thankful to this series for introducing me to Vargas’s artwork; he’s got a thick roughness to his work that I really enjoyed.
One World Under Doom #5 – As the Earth’s heroes work with Doom to vanquish Dormammu, we start to see some cracks in the community’s unity. Thor is starting to question whether or not Doom might not be better for Earth than the status quo was, and that’s an interesting question to ponder. I like how Ryan North is using this story to tackle some real world issues, especially around authoritarianism. This event doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of attention, aside from its spin-offs that I’m ignoring and some tie-ins to books I read, but it’s a very intelligent event and should get more discourse.
Phoenix #12 – We learn how Sara Grey is still alive, more or less, but there seems to be a lot of information missing still. We don’t know how she ended up on the alien planet where Jean has found her, but know that the Phalanx were somehow involved. This is a pretty decompressed issue that doesn’t really add a lot to the series so far. I’m getting tired of this book and can see not returning to it (assuming it comes back after the Age of Revelation stuff).
Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #3 – 5 – Even when reading three issues in a row, I find Ram V’s story a little hard to follow here, but I’m still enjoying this series. I don’t know if it was always established that Mitch Shelly and Vandal Savage were both made immortals on the same day or if this is new, but I like the way V weaves Mitch’s story into a few odd corners of the DC Universe, including him employing the Human Target to help him avoid his future self so he can continue to hide a scientific discovery that could save the world. This book is gorgeous, thanks to Anand RK, and I really appreciate the single pages contributed by the late Butch Guice.
Robin & Batman: Jason Todd #1 & 2 – Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen team up again to give us a story about the early days of Jason Todd’s tenure as Robin. We don’t get a rehashing of the time he stole tires off the Batmobile but we soon see how Bruce’s enthusiasm for a new Robin quickly turned into concern that he made a mistake in choosing him, as Jason appears ‘broken’. Really, he’s just pretty traumatized, and becomes an easy target for the Wraith, a Scourge/Punisher-like character who wants to start killing off Gotham’s criminals. This is a good start to this story, with more amazing Nguyen art. I’ve always felt like Jason is the Robin I know the least about, seeing as I haven’t spent much time with him (I did vote to kill him off in the phone poll, back in the day), so this is interesting to me.
Secret Six #4 – 6 – One of the last follow-ups to the Absolute Power event draws to a close with the Six all pretty angry with one another. Jon and Jay look to be on the outs, Dreamer is still a mess of a character, and the story strongly suggests that the animosity between Catman and Deadshot is at least partly romantic in nature (this has me thinking I need to reread Gail Simone’s run to see if this was being hinted at and I missed it). I don’t know if I ever liked this book, despite liking most of the characters a lot. It feels like something that needed more time in the oven to figure itself out before being published.
The Sixth Gun: Road to the Six #0 & The Sixth Gun: Battle For the Six #1 – I’m happy to see that Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt have returned with more Sixth Gun stories; the original series was a favourite of mine, although I’ve found the follow-ups to often be a little lacking (partly because I remember them being really late a lot of the time). Despite the fact that our various heroes live in a new, remade world, it seems that knowledge of the Six, powerful weapons with incredible powers, has survived, and The Cabal are looking to bring these weapons back. There’s an interesting twist introduced in the zero issue that serves as the surprise ending to the first issue, and I think it worked well to pique my interests. It took me a little bit to remember all of these characters, but I’m here for this.
Star Wars #2 & 3 – Our usual Star Wars heroes appear to have gotten themselves wrapped up in some kind of drama involving the Nagal people. Luke goes to look for a Jedi artifact and isn’t able to help someone who helps him, while Han and Valance get summoned to Bespin where an old friend of Han and Lando’s has come to die; he’s also Nagal. Like with Alex Segura’s work on the Battle of Jakku series, the plot can be a little hard to follow, as things happen quickly (who are the Storm Trooper-esque people who attack Luke, and where did they come from?) and often without explanation. Philo Noto’s art is always welcome and helps make this work, but I do worry about the long-term readability of this series. It needs more editing.
Storm #9 – I like the story that Murewa Ayodele is telling in this comic, but I still really struggle to recognize it as a story about Storm. The cosmic stuff doesn’t really fit, and I still don’t really understand what she’s doing with a gigantic flying city for her, Maggot, and some animals to live in. Lucas Werneck’s art is amazing, and like I said, Ayodele’s story is interesting, it’s just that I have a hard time reconciling this with the Storm I grew up reading about.
Transformers #21 & 22 – It’s kind of non-stop chaos in this series, as Megatron regains his arm from Optimus, who appears to be poisoned and struggling to access the Matrix to help himself heal. Elita manages to get the portal from Cybertron working again, but with only enough power to send one Autobot through, choices have to be made. This series keeps throwing a lot at the readers, and maintains its quality.
Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 & 2 – I’ve been looking forward to this series, which has Miles Morales’s little sister, Billie, falling into a dimensional portal that brings her to the Ultimate Universe. Miles jumps in after her, but ends up in New York, where he meets Spider-Man and his son, Richard. He gets help in his searching, connecting with the Ultimates and going to Wakanda, although the forces that run this world are also looking for Billie, as they see that she has the potential to take down the Maker. Co-writers Deniz Camp and Cody Ziglar do a good job of taking us on this tour of the Ultimate Universe, while keeping the story front and centre. I’m not sure if I love the art, by Jonas Scharf, as it has a rushed quality to it. Still, I’m enjoying this story so far, and am curious to be exposed to the rest of the Ultimate Universe (I still haven’t read any of the X-Men comics, and dropped Black Panther, so this is interesting).
Ultimate Wolverine #6 & 7 – Having been captured by the Resistance, Logan undergoes a form of psychic deprogramming, and returns to his rightful mind. The Resistance is ready to make a move on the facility where Logan was being held, and as they prepare, we get a lot more information about who is in the Resistance, seeing more than a few Ultimate versions of familiar characters. This book has been building slowly, and will have to work to make sure that Ultimate Logan is different from the 616 version for me to continue being interesting. I really liked Alex Lins’s art in issue 6.
Wonder Woman #22 & 23 – I remember when Tom King was working on Batman and had running gags involving Kite Man. Now he turns his wit towards The Mouse, as he sets this forgettable villain up as an antagonist for Diana. In issue twenty-two, we learn that after their first night together, Diana had to stop The Mouse from attacking the Capitol. Now, in the present, Diana is concerned that The Mouse has taken over an island and turned it into a dystopia. The rest of the League does not want to get involved, as they don’t have permission to go to the island, so Diana has to do it on her own. This is an odd story, made stranger by the knowledge that Diana is taking her child with her to dangerous situations. I’m not really sure what’s up with this book now that the Sovereign has been dealt with, but I’m going to trust that King has some sort of plan for it.
W0rldtr33 #15 & 16 – I continue to be really impressed with this series. Ellison has found the last surviving bastion of the old world in an underground bunker run by one of Gabriel Winters’s original friends, and wants them to help him put together documentation of what happened to the world, but the forces of the Undernet have found them. This book is full of intrigue and great art, as James Tynion IV and Fernando Blanco continue to upend expectations of where the story is going. Issue sixteen ends with a really interesting twist I’d like to know more about.
X-Men #17 & 18 – The X-Men’s first real fight against 3K concludes, with some of the new characters taking to the field in an attempt to find new solutions to the team’s problems. I’m enjoying the way Jed MacKay writes this book more and more, and feel like the early awkwardness was needed to set things up to where they are now. I wish the title could have more consistent art, but this is becoming pretty decent.
The Week In Music:
Pan Amsterdam – Confines – Pan Amsterdam is not a typical rapper. He moves from jokey tracks (White NInja) to more serious ones, and much of this album is sung instead of rapped. Some of the songs on here feature a full band, and others are regular beats made by producers I’m not familiar with. I need to spend more time with this album to fully absorb what he’s talking about, but for for sheer variety and ingenuity, this is an album people should check out.
Nujabes – Metaphorical Music – On my recent trip to Japan I was able to get my hands on some Nujabes albums that have always eluded me. I missed the boat on this seminal 00s Japanese hiphop producer, but am more than happy to learn all I can about him and his work now. He incorporated jazz into his beats in ways that other producers weren’t at the time, building off the sound of a lot of 90s beats into something richer and more layered. This album (I think it was his first) features some American emcees, including Cise Starr, from the group CYNE that I adored back in the day, and an early collaboration with Shing02, who would go on to make the Luv [Sic] Hexology with him. Listening to this so many years after it came out really proves that the comparisons between Dilla and Nujabes are well-earned.
Surprise Chef – Education & Recreation – This Australian band is quite the sight to see live. They recently came through, and I picked up this album from 2022. It’s full of their unique blend of library music, funk, and virtuosity. These are instrumental tracks that display a wide range of influences, and which take the listener on a journey.
