I’m getting closed to being caught up, with the oldest book in my reading pile having come out the week before this one, but next Wednesday’s release day is the biggest of the year, and I’m about to go back to work full time, so who knows how long it will take for me to be in a deep hole again?
Best Comic of My Week:
The War #1 – I’ve been reading ‘day after’ type stories since I was a kid, even though they sometimes really disturb me. I think that Garth Ennis and Becky Cloonan have reached a new level in the genre, as they portray the ‘day before’ with a focus on a group of New York hipster pseudo-intellectuals. The series starts at a party where the discussion turns to the current war in Ukraine, and one character, David, is adamant in his belief that people will turn away from war like they did in the Cuban Missile Crisis, even as peace talks break down overseas. We get to know this group of friends, as they begin to share with one another their thoughts about the possibility of war and what they would want to do in the event of things escalating to the nuclear level. A few nights later, they learn that London has been destroyed, and we see how people process this news, and try to prepare for what might happen next. Honestly, this comic was kind of terrifying, as it reminds me of how little the average person is able to do to influence anything on a global level. I’m not all that used to reading a serious Ennis book these days, and the tone took me by surprise. Cloonan is a great artist for this; her characters are expressive and believable, and she manages to create a lot of tension as the story builds. This is a truly impressive comic that I’m worried I’ll be thinking about when I should be sleeping.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Green Lantern #5 – We are getting closer to understanding what’s going on here as evil businessman Hector Hammond takes over the site where the giant alien green lantern has crushed a town, and as Jo Mullein and Hal Jordan continue their fight, which brings them back to the place where they got their strange new powers. I like how Al Ewing has set up this story, but I do wish each issue was less decompressed. Jahnoy Lindsay’s art is looking better with eac issue – I think he’s going to be a star.
Absolute Superman #10 – Superman goes to Greenland to rescue Agent Alpha (Jimmy Olsen) from Lazarus, and we learn what R’as Al Ghul has in mind for our hero. This is a pretty big issue, revealing a pretty big surprise at the end that I didn’t see coming (although I had been wondering who Primus really was). I continue to enjoy this series, but miss the class aspects it had at the beginning when we were learning about Krypton.
Assorted Crisis Events #5 – Once again, Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki deliver a masterclass in comics storytelling. This time around, they tell the story of a young girl who experiences a time loop of one minute for, from her perspective, a really long time. Afterwards, her life is shattered as she tries to come to grips with what happened, and to explain herself to people who refuse to understand (and, to be fair, have no ability to understand it). Zawadzki does a terrific job of experimenting with layout to help emphasise the looping quality of Camp’s story, and while I hate having to turn a book around in my hands to read it, this did add to the feeling of the story. This series has been incredible – each issue is a standalone and a complete surprise.
Batman and Robin #24 – Philip Kennedy Johnson’s story that’s had Batman and Robin dealing with the demonic threat Momento has run for quite a while, and comes to a satisfying conclusion with this issue. I like how Johnson has built on the work Chip Zdarsky did, fleshing out Bruce’s string of teachers in the The Knight series, and have especially liked how he portrays some of the nuance in Bruce’s relationship with Damian. I’m glad he’s sticking around as writer, and think that the group of artists he’s been working with (Miguel Mendonça drew most of this issue) reflect his stories well. This book doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it’s consistently very good.
Black Hammer: Spiral City #7 – Jeff Lemire and Teddy Kristiansen wrap up this excellent return to the Black Hammer universe masterfully. Everyone’s secrets are revealed as Spiral City realizes the man they just elected mayor is a criminal. The Concretestador works at his own redemption, while the better known heroes finally make an appearance. It’s been so nice to see Kristiansen’s angular and dark artwork in this series, and I hope he does something more soon. I’m indifferent as to whether or not Lemire publishes more Black Hammer stuff – I only want to see it if the story is going to be as good as this miniseries was.
The Blood Brothers Mother #4 – If you come into a Western story by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, you already know not to expect a happy ending. This series, about three boys who are wandering the West looking for their mother who was kidnapped by their biological outlaw father after he killed their stepfather, has been pretty brutal from the first issue, but this conclusion is even more harsh. Azzarello writes like he always has – he’s comics’ Cormac McCarthy, and Risso’s art has gotten even better, especially since he uses watercolours for this book. I really enjoyed this series, and was thankful for DSTLRY’s over-sized pages; it really did the art justice.
Bronze Faces #4 – Shobo and Shof’s story, drawn by Alexandre Tefenkgi, is probably going to read better in trade, as there are a lot of characters to keep track of. This issue takes place after the disastrous heist of the last one, and a key member of the crew that is going around reclaiming African bronzes is dead. The rest of the crew is fracturing, with one member wanting to take on everything on her own now. We also get some interesting insight into the police officer who has been tracking the thieves down. There aren’t any other comics quite like this one, and I’m glad Boom is publishing it.
Calexit: The Battle of Universal City #1 – The last we saw an issue of Calexit was in 2018, making me suspect that writer/publisher Matteo Pizzolo requires the active threat of creeping facism caused by the Trump administration to be able to get comics out (I know that Rogue State came out during the Biden years, but still). This was supposed to come out something like two years ago, and I’d given up on ever expecting it. This new series picks up where the last one left off. Jamil is a courier, tasked with smuggling Zora, a leader in the Mulholland Resistance through enemy lines and out of Los Angeles. In their near-future LA, California has split from the United States over a dispute about migration, and the President has sent the National Guard to support the greenshirt militias. Jamil is neutral, selling drugs and doing favours for both sides, but at the start of this issue his attempt to sneak Zora away has fallen apart after she killed some guys at a checkpoint. What follows is a continuation of their efforts to get out, while Zora actively looks for ways to martyr herself. Pizzolo picks away at some of their politics and beliefs, while keeping things light, funny, and sometimes very violent. He’s joined by new artist C. Granda, whose work keeps the aesthetic of the first artist (Amancay Nahuelpan), and keeps the story moving. I hope that the rest of this series comes out, but Pizzolo and Black Mask are notoriously unreliable publishers (I’m sure the Diamond nonsense hasn’t helped much). This book feels even more topical now than it did when it first came out.
Captain America #1 & 2 – I’ve been a big fan of Chip Zdarsky’s writing for years now, so I was pretty pleased to see that he was coming onboard for a new run of Captain America, with Valerio Schiti drawing. Zdarsky is a wildly funny writer who is also very good at creating serious takes on established characters. I think the decision to start this run off with a story set in the days immediately after Cap was recovered from the ice (which, in the sliding scale of Marvel Comics continuity is now after America invaded Afghanistan and Iraq). Cap is confused and out of place, but knows that he should return to his base and life in the military. He’s tasked with heading into Latveria to try to rescue some diplomats that Dr. Doom has taken hostage after closing the US embassy. Cap is partnered with a new Captain America, a kid who went through the modern equivalent of the super soldier program, and who has a higher rank than he does. Zdarsky is setting up some interesting stuff, while retconning yet more characters into Cap’s past (there’s also a new Howling Commandos). This book is off to a good start, and has my attention.
Cheetah & Cheshire Rob The Justice League #1 – Everyone loves a good heist story, and Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott have started off a very good one with this limited series. Cheetah has the idea to rob something from the Watchtower, and recruits Cheshire to help her out. These are two interesting characters, both often falling into the anti-hero category, so it’s curious that they’re the ones chosen for this book. Scott excels at drawing beautiful women, so there’s definitely an appeal to this book from that, but also, Rucka is really good at writing strong female characters. There’s an irreverence to this book that I like, and I’m curious to see how the rest of it plays out. I’m also curious to see what other characters end up involved in this.
Dune: Edge of a Crysknife: Hiding Among Harkonnens #1 – I thought this was a one-off, but it looks like Boom is publishing three of these oversized volumes, telling the story of Shadout Mapes as a younger woman, as she tried to infiltrate the Harkonnen city on Arrakis and use the information she finds there against them. At this point, these Boom Dune stories kind of follow similar patterns. I don’t dislike Simone Ragazzoni’s art, but it lacks the aesthetics of the recent Dune movies, and that would be a big part of the appeal of comic stories. This was not bad at all, but I wonder if I’m going to get future Dune comics after this story is done. They aren’t innovative enough.
Exceptional X-Men #11 – The kids discover a tiny portal in a park, and then team up with Ironheart to fight the guy who comes out of it. After that, Kitty gets angsty again. I enjoy the slower pace of this book and the focus on its characters, but sometimes the stakes feel very low. I guess you can’t have it both ways, and I do enjoy the way Eve L. Ewing writes these characters.
Fantastic Four #1 & 2 – I don’t love that Marvel relaunched this title again, especially since they kept the same author, but I guess they figured that would give them a tiny sales boost when coinciding with the new film. Anyway, Ryan North is continuing to write the same kind of stories as he did in the last volume, only with Humberto Ramos drawing the book, the story is a little more decompressed. The Four attack Emperor Doom, who sends them to different points in time. Of course, Reed has a plan for this eventuality, only Sue has been sent so far into the future that she’s not able to implement their usual plan, and to make things work, Reed has to improvise in the past. It’s another cool story from North. I’ve been a fan of Ramos’s work for a long time, but this is maybe not the right book for him. He tends to make characters look younger and this is, with the exception of Johnny, a more mature team. Anyway, things are off to a good start/continuation, and I’m curious to see how this continues to connect to the One World Under Doom event.
Farmhand #24 – As this book keeps getting stranger, it also gets more bloody and exciting. A character we thought we wouldn’t see again returns, and the family and some government agents make a move on the farm, hoping to stop Thorne. At the same time, a giant tree seems to be calling the shots, and we learn the real purpose of all the plant-transplant recipients for Thorne’s plans. There are only two issues left, and Rob Guillory is keeping things moving at a pretty quick pace. This book has really changed from its beginning as a family resentment drama with science fiction plant body horror elements. It’s pretty great.
FML #5 – As this series leans more into the murder mystery aspect of its plot it is starting to get a little convoluted. Kelly Sue DeConnic is setting up multiple suspects, although it’s pretty clear to the reader who is responsible for killing the man who maybe killed the main character’s mother’s friend back in the day. This book is at its best when it is focusing on the characters and their interactions with one another, and this issue still has plenty of that for us.
Gehenna: Naked Aggression #1 & 2 – I’ve followed a lot of writer Patrick Kindlon’s work, and was drawn to the Frank Miller-esque cover of the first issue, so I preordered this book. It’s a mashup of Punisher and Sin City. The main character is seeking revenge on all mafia types, and the issue opens with what appears to be her kidnapping some gangster’s twelve-year-old son. This is a hyper-violent book that appears to be a celebration of bold and wild comics creativity. The woman is pursued, a lot of people are killed, and we casually come to the realization that the world that Kindlon and artist Maurizio Rosenzweig have created has some form of superheroes in it. I thought at first that this was just going to be an action movie, but welcome the new elements they are bringing in. This book is fun, in kind of a dumb way, and I appreciate that that was always the intent for it.
Giant-Size X-Men #2 – I don’t know about this event. I feel like it was designed to shift Ms. Marvel deeper into the mutant camp in the 616, and to switch up her powerset to make her closer to the way she’s been portrayed in Marvel TV shows and movies (I think she was in a movie too?). I hate the way the MCU influences the Marvel Universe, and felt like it was really unnecessary in the case of this character. Other than that, we got a lot of nostalgia dives in this event, but seeing as half of them were callbacks to events I disliked (AoA and House of M), that didn’t grab me either. And now we’re left with an ambiguous suggestion that maybe the X-Men remember Kamala being with them through the years, but maybe they don’t? They didn’t even take the time to ensure that the timeline was otherwise put to rights. I don’t know, I’m tired of the way Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly treat established continuity – if they were retconning changes that improved things, I’d be fine with it, but as with their Guardians of the Galaxy series, they strike me as doing most of their character research by watching the movies. I also suppose this is going to be the last time we see their NYX concept get mentioned anywhere, which is too bad because it had potential. I do Adam Kubert’s art in this book a lot; it’s good to see him working with some of these characters again.
GODS: One World Under Doom #1 – When Jonathan Hickman’s GODS series ended, I assumed we’d never see any of the characters in it again, as it didn’t fit well with the rest of the Marvel Universe. Instead, we get this one-shot where Ryan North gathers up some of Hickman’s toys and makes them a tangential part of the current One World Under Doom event. Wynn’s apprentice, Mia, is chafing in her role, so she’s surprised when Wynn takes her to get Emperor Doom to help him with some magic that needs to be done in the heart of the sun, and Doom appears to be kind. North gets the dynamic that Hickman was building in his series, and also sees how Doom is an alternate magic role model for Mia. This was a solid issue, even if the art by Francesco Mortarino was a little too Mark Bagley-esque for my liking. I again don’t know if we’ll ever see Wynn and Mia again, but North made me like Mia a lot, and I’d be fine with him writing her again.
The Hero Trade: Project Chimera #1 – I’m happy to see Bad Planet publishing comics again, especially longer Hero Trade stories, as I always enjoyed them as backups in their other books. I’m not sure about them charging $6 for a newsprint comic, but do feel that David Lapham’s art is uniquely suited to this kind of paper, and enjoyed the old school texture of the book. The Hero Trade stories, written by Matt Kindt, give us a look at a more real-world take on superheroes, although one that is often incredibly violent. In this issue, we meet two workers for a company that is housing two very powerful teenagers. The two workers, Ingrid and Hank, ‘handle’ these two kids, having helped raise them and prepare them for missions. They’ve also started to have an affair, which they figure would get them in trouble were it known by their employers. We see that the company’s culture is highly paranoid, and that both Ingrid and Hank are thinking about rescuing the kids, who are profoundly unhappy. Kindt’s best books involve some kind of mysterious external structure, and Lapham is just so good at drawing regular people in strange situations. I really liked this chunky story. The backup, by Joshua Dysart and Cafu, is pretty disturbing, chronicling the last surviving humans on a world taken over by plastic and ruled by malevolent puppets. It’s strange and haunting, and will stick with me. Dysart is one of the most unsung creators in comics.
Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special #1 – This one-shot written by Mark Waid and Marc Guggenheim, and drawn by Cian Tormey, continues to explore the fall-out of the We Are Yesterday storyline. A bunch of time-lost heroes gather together to help a mystery time traveller investigate what is going on with time. We see some time-based characters, like Waverider, meet their end at the hands of shadow beings with omega symbols on their foreheads, and learn that this is another story connected to Darkseid and his Dark Legion. It’s nice to see rarer characters get used for things like this, and I guess as Waid is immersed in New DC History right now, he’s the guy to write something like this. I do worry that DC is rushing this K.O. event and storyline, though, and that it’s hurting the main Justice League book, which has concepts I’d like to see explored further.
Life #5 – I continue to be very impressed with this DSTLRY series, co-written by Brian Azzarello and Stephanie Phillips, and drawn by one of my favourite artists, Danijel Žeželj. It’s a dark and moody science fiction story about diamond thieves, influencers, and criminals who have been made immortal in a cruel fashion colliding on a remote prison planet that has been forgotten by the authorities. No one can trust one another and everyone is looking to get over, making this a bit complicated in parts, but very propulsive. I like how the story is divided, split-book fashion, into two separate tales that show the sides of the thieves and the convicts. I can’t wait for the last issue to see how this ends.
The Missionary #3 – Ryan Stegman and Jason Howard’s DSTLRY series about foul-mouthed demons and angels fighting for the Earth comes to a satisfying end. This reminded me of something that Garth Ennis might have written at Vertigo, in a really fun and amusing way. I’m glad DSTLRY has figured out their distribution issues, and I’m hoping to see more of their series continue.
Napalm Lullaby #10 – I’ll admit that this series kind of lost me after the first five issues, but this final issue makes everything a lot more clear. It’s hard to talk about without giving away the whole series, but I feel like writer Rick Remender was trying to pull a Robert Kirkman and switch the status quo of the series, but it didn’t fully land. I still enjoyed this series, especially Bengal’s art.
Nightwing 2025 Annual #1 – This is actually a Maggie Sawyer comic, as she investigates the head of Spheric, the company that has been augmenting her police department with technology. We’re given a very noirish issue with terrific art by Francesco Francavilla, as Maggie’s investigation is surprisingly tied into the hearings that led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority. I like what Dan Watters has been doing with this title, after a bit of a rocky start, and like that the supporting characters are being given so much space.
One World Under Doom #6 – I firmly believe that Ryan North is one of the smartest people writing in mainstream comics today. His One World Under Doom event has been a little underwhelming so far as crossovers go (few of the tie-ins I’ve read have been good or have added much to this story), but I think that’s because all of the juice is going into the main book. This issue has Reed Richards debating Doom on live TV on the topic of whether or not he deserves to have the power he’s given himself. What makes it really interesting is the way in which Doom’s arguments make a lot of sense. He calls out characters like Richards, Tony Stark, T’Challa, Storm, and the X-Men for not sharing the fruits of their scientific endeavours or power with the world to help on a larger scale, echoing questions I’ve often had about superhero universes. His arguments land well, and even Reed is aware that he’s faltering and losing the debate. At the same time, though, Maria Hill has helped Black Widow, Invisible Woman, and the Scarlet Witch sneak into Latveria, which has been mystically shielded for months. What they find is surprising. This issue had me thinking about how people are currently willing to accept some of the extremes of the Trump regime because they like some of the other results, but what Natasha and the others find is akin to us learning that Trump is personally directing the genocide in Gaza. There is no way that North is not thinking about these real-world parallels when he writes this book, making this one of the most topical comics I’ve read (with the exception of the fact that we live in a world without powerful heroes to resist, it would seem). This book is interesting, and with RB Silva drawing it, gorgeous. I’m curious to see if North is getting pushback on this story, both within Marvel and in the wider circles of fandom.
Phoenix #13 – Not long after she was introduced, we learn the truth behind Jean Grey’s sister, and why Cable is looking to kill her. At the same time, another being has a use for her, so we know this story will last a while longer. Much like with Storm (see below), I don’t think I’m going to come back to this book if it returns after Age of Revelation. I just don’t get the feeling that Stephanie Phillips has anything interesting to say about Jean Grey, and feel like this book is lacking direction.
The Power Fantasy #10 & 11 – Kieron Gillen has spent the first bunch of issues establishing these characters and setting up pieces on the chessboard, but it’s with issue eleven that it feels like this series is moving beyond explaining what’s happened before and is showing us where things are headed. The most powerful people on the planet gather, but we’ve learned that one is not who he says he is, and has designs on taking another off the board. The consequences to that issue will be huge when the series returns in October, and has me excited. This book has been a bit hard to keep straight sometimes, but I think I have a good handle on it now.
Storm #10 & 11 – I’m increasingly finding this book to be frustrating. I can’t really get a handle on what Murewa Ayodele is doing with this story. He has this way of throwing in new story elements or plot twists that don’t really make sense, and treats big events quickly, and without a lot of consistency. After going to space with Maggot and Manifold, and then fighting the Oruba storm god, Ororo goes to check in on the kid from the first issue of this series, who has been training with Bishop. While there, they are mystically attacked, with one character killed and another badly injured. Right after that, Galactus crashes to Earth in the same place, and things really stop making sense. Also, since when does Gateway talk? I really want to like this book – Storm is one of my favourite characters, and the art is really good (especially when Lucas Werneck is drawing), but all this cosmic stuff with Eternity and Oblivion is losing me quickly. I think that if this book returns after the Age of Revelation stuff, I probably won’t be.
Titans 2025 Annual #1 – This is a beautiful book. Phil Jimenez further cements his place as the worthiest of successors to George Pérez, as he tells a touching story about Donna Troy. It seems that Donna’s father has contacted her, and as she travels to meet him, she composes a letter to him that tells us her entire story, as it’s been slightly reimagined to fit in the new DC Universe (there’s a lot of that going on these days). We see Donna’s childhood and time with the Titans from her perspective, and learn about her regrets, and her unlimited capacity for love. Jimenez’s art is perfect, and his writing has grown so much over the years. It’s obvious that he has a lot of affection for Donna, and that makes the book a real work of love.
Ultimate Wolverine #8 – Logan and a Resistance team head out to rescue mutants from a Rasputin science facility, but find the sight of a massacre and a fight with the mutant responsible. Chris Condon continues to make this one of the darkest books in the Ultimate line. I like the work he does with Logan in this issue, as he starts to ponder what was done to him and how to best respond. I want this comic to continue to read differently from the 616 Wolverine stories.
Uncanny X-Men #17 – 19 – Maybe the trick is to read Gail Simone’s X-Men in batches of three or more issues, because I found myself getting into these comics quite a bit. I’m starting to realize that she’s emulating Chris Claremont in the way she introduces story and character elements to only have them play out much later, and I kind of like that. For example, Jubilee has to return to Westchester to deal with the consequences of choices she made at the start of this series. I also find the new characters (except for Calico) are really starting to grow on me, and I like the way New Orleans is embracing the X-Men. There’s a lot of potential in this series, and I hope it picks up again after the Age of Revelation stuff puts it on hiatus.
Vampirella #3 & 4 – The best Priest stories tend to have layered depictions of time, often showing events that are decades apart at the same time. With this latest arc, he has Vampirella struggling with her feelings as a new mother in the present, while her adult son has traveled back in time to try to stop her from taking over the world with magic and AI, and is trying to get her therapist to help him with that. We also see events that are ten years into the future, as Vampirella turns on her friends and heads down this dark path. It’s a little hard to follow this story, and Priest continues to jump back to scenes from earlier stories to remind us of their ongoing relevance, which sometimes just makes things more confusing. In the final analysis, I love the amount of thought that has gone into this book and that it requires of me just to keep track of what’s happening. It feels like he’s building to something, but I also know that he’s going to be around for at least twenty-one more issues (the build-up to issue 700 is on), so I really have no idea what else he’s going to do to this poor alien vampire.
The Voice Said Kill #1 – This is an excellent first issue. Simon Spurrier and Vanessa Del Rey have a weird crime story set in the Louisiana bayou that stands out for its originality. Marie is a very pregnant park warden sergeant who is the only person in her district who showed up to work after a staff party where everyone else got sick. She gets threatened by the maven of a local alligator poaching ring, and then gets called out for an emergency, even though she’s not supposed to be in the field. I’m avoiding spoiling some of the more surprising or interesting elements of this story, but by the end of this issue, it’s clear that she’s got some rough days ahead of her. I really like Del Rey’s art – it makes the bayou look very threatening and strange, and the people all seem a little off too. John Starr’s colours are very effective, and like a typical Spurrier story (as if there was such a thing) you kind of have to work to follow along. This is going to be a great series.
Warm Fusion #3 – The delays between issues of this DSTLRY series (the company’s issues with distribution in the post-Diamond landscape are well-known, and I am myself way behind on my reading still) really hurt it, as I had a hard time remembering what was going on in this book. Even given that, I feel like Scot Hoffman’s story kind of fell apart or got convoluted from what was originally a bit of a police procedural. I’m not the biggest fan of body horror, although I feel like I read a lot of it, and I got this a little confused with Ram V’s recent book (One Hand?). Anyway, Alberto Ponticelli’s art is nice, and I do like the wide-screen formatting DSTLRY brings to the table.
What’s The Furthest Place From Here #22 – It’s been a while since the last issue came out, which is a shame because this series just keeps getting stranger and more wonderful. The Academy have crossed the mountains and find that they’re in very hostile territory, where it looks like every ‘family’ of starving kids is wanting to kill them. They need to get one of their own back from some kids with boar heads, so they concoct a weird plan to scare them, and that looks like it’s going to have consequences for Prufrock. I really like this book, and am looking forward to it getting back on schedule at some point as it closes in on its finale.
Wild Animals #1 – I have a lot of respect for Ed Brisson’s crime writing, and in this new Mad Cave series, he and artist Andy Kuhn set up the story of a young man whose police officer father was killed by three dirty cops when he was very young. Now, with his mother dying, and the family’s money running out, this character is at a bit of a crossroads, with his path made clear after he opens a lockbox containing some of his mother’s secrets. Brisson is very good at writing stories like this, and I’m already engaged and want to see what happens next.
X-Men #19 & 20 – These two issues were interesting. Issue nineteen checks in on Doug Ramsay, Warlock, and Bei, and starts to set up the upcoming Age of Revelation event. I’ll admit that it got me more interested than the solicitations did, but that’s partly because I’ve always really liked Doug. Issue twenty has lots of good character work, and features a fist fight between Cyclops and Agent Lindqvist, which is a bit odd. I have to say that I like what Jed MacKay is doing here, and wish that the AoR event was going to put things on hold for a few months. I’m curious to know who is in charge of ONE now…
X-Men: Age of Revelation #0 – I hate future events now. I remember a time when I thought they were thrilling, but I also think that post-Days of Future Past, writers need to have a very good reason to attempt them. There was a stretch where just about every comic had its characters moving into their future, meeting a future self, or the story just jumped into a bleak future, perhaps as a framing sequence, or more often, to tell a story that we know is never going to come to pass. Now, as a way of celebrating the Age of Apocalypse, which is thirty years old (?), Marvel is returning to that well and giving us the Age of Revelation. In this preview, we see that Doug Ramsay, as Revelation, becomes responsible for some massive changes in the United States, resulting in a large swath of land being mutated and inhabitable only by mutants. Now that Doug has continued to change and become, as Xorn suggests, ‘mad’, it’s down to a small team of X-Men to put things right. I’m not going to lie, I liked this issue (although the washed out colours in most of it bothered me). But did I like it enough to buy into some sixteen tie-ins? When the original AoA happened, I dropped the entire X-Line. I’d been looking for a reason, as quality dwindled, and then it took me years to come back. Here, I really do like Jed MacKay’s writing, and have been getting more invested in his X-Men run. I think it’s a shame that it, and the other books I’ve been enjoying are going on a forced hiatus for four months (assuming any are coming back and Marvel doesn’t use this as an excuse to launch them all again with new creative teams). Really, I feel like Marvel is providing me with a good jumping-off point, and I can already tell that I’m going to be trimming back on titles like Phoenix and Storm (Wolverine is on the precipice of getting dropped too, depending on how this current storyline plays out). I wish we lived in a time where some books can just be given space to grow. It’s hard to return to interesting subplots after a four month break, you know?
X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1 – I’d been looking forward to this one-shot that has mutants from all corners of the current publishing lineup gathering in New York and Chicago to pay tribute to Krakoa and all that they lost there. The problem is, it didn’t really work, because it didn’t seem to have any real purpose. The Hellfire Gala specials were used to move the X-line forward in a coordinated way, but this is kind of just an anthology, cramming some characters together. I liked some of it a lot – it’s good that they gave Geoffrey Thorne space to explain why he had Colossus hiding his identity in X-Force, and I thought it was cool to see two budding romances connecting different X-titles, but some chapters left me lost. I have no idea what was going on with Storm’s section, as Murewa Ayodele, the writer of her series, gave us some vignettes from different time periods that had nothing to do with Krakoa or the other characters. I miss seeing all the mutants interacting with each other, and would have loved to have checked in on some of the characters we’ve not seen since From The Ashes began. (I found the part with Banshee, who for some reason wasn’t wearing shoes, and Siryn, as I don’t read the Marvel Unlimited stuff). I think this is sadly indicative of how things are working in the era of Tom Brevoort editing the X-Line; there’s no real coordination or shared vision. I’m fine with books doing their own thing, but the long-lasting connection between these characters should be reflected more often.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
Paying The Land – I’ve had this Joe Sacco book on my shelf for ages and am glad I finally made the time to read it. Sacco, best known for his coverage of war zones and occupied lands, turns his eye to the Canadian far north, and has put together a very complete portrait of life for the Dene people, whose traditional territory is now part of British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Sacco explores the historical and ongoing problems facing Dene communities, including ongoing land claim cases and the lasting impact of Canada’s Residential School system, and focuses a lot on the issues surrounding economic development and resource extraction in the territory. What most stands out, though, is the caring and honest way in which he profiles the people he met on his trips. He does a lot to humanize the Dene and their plight, adding to the discourse around reconciliation and respecting our northern communities and cultures. He doesn’t editorialize here – he basically just shows us what he saw, the good and the bad, and leaves the reader with a deeper understanding of how things are. Comics journalism is such a rare sub-genre, and few come anywhere close to being as good at it as Sacco is. This is a remarkable book.
Magazine of the Week:
Back Issue #157 – I’ve often flipped through issues of Back Issue magazine, but I’ve never read one before this issue, which is a tribute to Keith Giffen. As a huge Giffen fan, I relished the ability to read about the highs and lows of his career, and see what other people chose as his most seminal and influential pieces of work. Giffen was a rare creator, and was responsible for many comics I look back on with fondness (especially his long run on Legion of Super-Heroes, culminating in the masterpiece 5 Years Later series, which I put in my top five). This was a good, comprehensive magazine, and while it took me a while to get through the whole thing, I’m appreciative of TwoMorrows for making it. I also think I’ve reached the stage in my life where nostalgia-driven reporting holds even more appeal to me, and I’ve already picked up another issue. It was no substitute for reading Giffen’s work though, and I’m making plans to revisit some of his other best comics.
The Week in Music:
Resavoir & Matt Gold – Horizon – I’ve seen so much love for this album since its release, and I’m not surprised. It’s a very beautiful collaboration between Resavoir (on keys, synths, and samplers) and Matt Gold (on guitar, bass, and drums). I feel like they cycle through a few genres, with one track showing heavy roots influences, but the majority of this is jazz or a kind of live electronic music that I love. This is a very relaxing, very healing album that I can’t recommend enough.
Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain – Esoteric, Modal and Progressive Jazz From Central & Eastern Europe (1962-1988) – The twenty-seven tracks collected across these two discs take us all around Central and Eastern Europe’s jazz scenes across a twenty-six year period. I’d not heard of any of the artists on here, so this is a voyage of discovery. Very few of these tracks sound completely ‘Eastern’ to me, suggesting that even behind the Iron Curtain, American music proliferated, but with local influence and flavour. It’s interesting, as once again, Jazzman Record’s Spiritual Jazz series becomes one of my best jazz teachers.
Jamael Dean – Ished Tree – I first saw Jamael Dean perform with Kamasi Washington’s band when he was a teenager, and his skill struck me. I’ve since followed his career (he also makes music as <Jira> and Jasik) and have enjoyed a lot of his music. I was excited to find a CD release of his album Ished Tree when I was in Japan. This is solo piano music that walks the line between neo-classical and jazz, and it’s lovely. Aside from one track, Soul of the Griot, which features AK Toney doing some spoken word, it’s all instrumental and very relaxing, while still being thoughtful. I’m glad I was able to add this to my collection.
