The Best Comic of My Week:
The Voice Said Kill #2 – This bayou noir story by Simon Spurrier and Vanessa Del Rey is fantastic. Marie, the very pregnant Wildlife and Fisheries officer who was forced to kill a drug-addled psycho in the first issue, finds herself the hostage of a group of bad people who force her to take them somewhere deep in the swamp in this issue. Spurrier is parceling out a unique story built around a unique protagonist, and Del Rey is making this book look incredible. It reminds me a lot of Scalped and Southern Bastards, but with a more narrow focus and penchant for strange twists. I’m really liking this book.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Superman #11 – Brainiac attempts to brainwash Superman on behalf of Ra’s Al Ghul, and we get further insight into his character. At the same time, Lois and Jimmy are prisoners of Lazarus, at least until General Lane is made aware of it. Jason Aaron has been building an interesting take here, and it continues to be entertaining.
Batman #1 – It’s been a while since Matt Fraction has written a monthly comic, so that is something to get excited about as this latest Batman relaunch gets underway. Fraction seems to be exploring the role that trauma plays in peoples’ lives in this run, with it being openly discussed twice and hinted at as Batman keeps up an internal imaginary dialogue with Alfred Pennyworth as he goes about his day (that might be a reach; I guess it’s possible that it’s just really tempting to write Batman with Alfred’s voice still available to him). On the surface, this issue is about Batman trying to find the regressing Killer Croc before the police do, but what we see is how Vandal Savage’s takeover of the police department during Chip Zdarsky’s run is having an effect on how policing is done in the city. I guess, as crime continues to drop in our world, while rhetoric about it is on the rise (as is authoritarianism), it makes sense for Fraction to return to a state of distrust between the police and the Bat-Family. Jorge Jiménez always does fine work on Batman comics, and I like the way he’s updated the Bat-suit, and returned to the blue cape. I have a feeling this is going to be a good run.
Dune: Edge of a Crysknife – Rage of Shai-Hulud #1 – It’s a bit ridiculous that Boom chose to tell this story across two one-shots instead of as a two-part series. This second issue continues the story of Shadout Mapes, a Fremen who has infiltrated the Harkonnen base on Arrakis posing as a cleaning woman in order to access secrets and help the resistance coordinate her plans. In the first story, her plans led to the death of many Fremen, including her husband. Now, her son is grown (even though she doesn’t appear to have aged at all), and is working with her to plan a devastating attack on the Harkonnens’ spice production. I think I might be done with Boom’s Dune comics. I enjoy this world, but these prequel stories lack the insight and purpose of Frank Herbert’s novels, instead adapting the work of Brian Herbert and Keven J. Anderson, who seem much more preoccupied with story to the exclusion of theme. Maybe if the art were more polished and reflective of the aesthetic we’ve seen in the recent movies, I’d be more drawn to it.
The Flash #24 – So many superhero stories are predicated on the idea that goodness will win out in the end, and that doing the right things leads to rewards. One version of Wally and Jai try to help Eclipso understand the problems with and motivations for his behaviour, and instead of solving the problem, it just makes things worse. Simon Spurrier has taken a truly unique approach to this series, and it’s culminating nicely in this Bad Moon Rising arc (I suspect that his time on the book is coming to a close, sadly). This is a solid issue, and less confusing than some of the more recent issues.
Green Arrow #27 – I liked the first arc that Chris Condon and Montos did on this book, but this new one is even better. There’s a red-themed archer shooting some kind of narcotic into drug dealers, and Ollie finally catches up with him in this issue. At the same time, Roy, who is recovering from the overdose the Crimson Archer forced on him, has a big heart-to-heart talk with his daughter Lian. It’s very well written, and Montos has really found his lane with this book. There’s a few pages of Ollie swinging through the city, and it’s gorgeous. More people should be checking out this book.
Green Lantern #26 – I like this Starbreaker Supremacy crossover with GLC in theory, but in execution, it’s leaning on too many of the things I don’t like about the Green Lantern mythos. The weird energy parasite things are in this issue, and I can’t stand them in general. I also feel a few things about the art of V Ken Marion. Some of his pages are great, but others feel way too rushed or undercooked. His work reminds me too much of Scott Kolins in places, and has some 90s vibes I find uncomfortable. This issue did some essential work for the larger plotline, and I’m hoping that things will improve with the next chapter.
Imperial War: Exiles #1 – As the Imperial story plays out, an Imperial Superguardian makes a claim to the Shi’ar throne. First, he has to get rid of Xandra, the current Majestrix, and he chases her and Deathbird to a poor planet. Charles Xavier and the newly-returned Lilandra show up, and the book sets up the upcoming Exiles series. I feel like there are some continuity issues here – it’s been a while since Xavier resurrected Lilandra and left Earth in the X-Manhunt event, but there’s no way he would have had enough time to do all of this in the little bit of time that Xandra’s been under attack, but beyond that, I liked the character interactions here, and am interested in this Exiles series (especially when we see who else is likely to join the team). I’ve been a little unsure of Steve Foxe’s writing so far, and this book didn’t help me make up my mind. I am really liking this Imperial event though.
Justice League Unlimited #10 – Mark Waid is moving things along pretty quickly in this series. Clark, Diana, and Bruce are in disagreement about how easily they’ve been letting people join the team, while some heroes try to save the life of a badly injured Time Trapper (it’s a little unclear how this fits with the most recent issue of Superman). Apokoliptian-style fire pits are forming across the Earth, and the Parademon the League captured a while back is showing signs of undergoing a kind of metamorphosis. I enjoy how much stuff Waid throws at the wall in this book, and continue to be surprised by the quality, versatility, and speed of Dan Mora’s art (he’s doing two books a month, and they’re both this good?).
Kaya #29 – Kaya, Jin, and their small crew put their plan in action to free a group of slaves, but the Atraxian robots are more of a match than they figured, and when something bad happens, Jin undergoes a shocking transformation. This is an all-action issue that looks terrific. Wes Craig has been building to the events of this issue for a while, and it feels like the series is about to go through a change of some kind. This is a wonderful series.
Lazarus: Fallen #3 – I’m so happy with this book right now. Forever and Infinity have been found by another Lazarus in France, and that leads to a pretty brutal fight, which in turn, leads to a tech upgrade that Infinity didn’t know she had. Elsewhere, Malcolm reminds everyone in his inner circle that he’s a horrible and manipulative person. There’s not a lot of story in this issue, as Greg Rucka and Michael Lark give the big fight the space it needs. Lark’s art has somehow improved while this book was on hiatus, and the way he and colourist Santiago Arcas worked out the camouflage effect is really cool.
Long Cold Winter #4 – It’s taken me forever to track down the final issue of this Mad Cave series (it was very much a victim of Diamond’s troubles). I like Stefano Cardoselli’s art; it reminds me of Kevin O’Neill in all the best ways. I also did enjoy this series, even though the story was kind of slight. Peace Dog, a notorious war criminal and wanted man is accompanying a small robot called The Kid to a village in the mountains, but Peace Dog’s past, and a deal he made with the devil, are catching up to him. This is an odd one.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #37 – This is the kind of story I’ve been missing in this series. Miles plays basketball with his friends, and then gets called in by Misty Knight to help find out who has been robbing stores in the neighbourhood. The two villains – White Cat and Inari – are cool additions to Miles’s rogues gallery, and feel different from most Marvel villains. Of course, to counter White Cat’s luck-based powers, Misty calls in another long-running Marvel character, continuing the string of guest stars to appear in this title. I actually don’t remember the last time an issue didn’t have another established Marvel character who’s had their own book in it. I wish Cody Ziglar would focus more on Miles, but this is one of the better issues I’ve seen in this book in a while.
Mr. Terrific: Year One #4 – I’m really enjoying this miniseries that is fleshing out and modernizing Mr. Terrific’s origin story. This issue has him meeting with Bruce Wayne to try to figure out a radiation problem in Gotham that is related to the problem he’s been trying to solve at home. It’s really nice seeing Valentine De Landro’s art on a regular basis, and I’ve been impressed with the writing of Al Letson, who is new to me. He’s got a good handle on Holt’s character.
News From the Fall Out #3 – This very strange zombie story (of sorts) by Chris Condon and Jeffrey Alan Love continues to impress and confound. Because the art is drawn all in silhouette, it can be a little hard to tell characters apart, and the fact that one of them is Black is largely lost on the reader. It also provides a little more suspense, as the fall-out altered soldiers and their victims continue to spread out from their military base. The general, who we’ve learned was aware of what he was doing when he put the soldiers in danger, is with some of the ‘zombies’, and he’s a bit like Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. This is an interesting and unique book.
Phantom Road #15 – The current arc of this series has been focused on showing us what happened when Theresa was a child, and was abducted by a businessman in order to control her FBI father, who was at the time in possession of one of the otherworldly eggs we’ve seen the book’s main characters dealing with in the presence. This issue ties things back to Theresa’s current predicament, as she meets that man again, but he plays with her confusion around what happened. Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernandez Walta are telling a strange story with this series, and I find it very compelling.
Phoenix #14 – We now know why Sara Grey has returned to life, and while it’s not all that clear why, her existence threatens the universe. The In-Betweener (in his post-GODS new appearance style) wants Sara taken out of the equation, but Jean, who has lost so much, wants to keep her sister around. This is shaping up to be a big cosmic fight against the Marvel cosmic mainstays, many of whom have been redesigned lately. The last page reveals who is going to help Jean in this mission, but it appears to have left out a ton of people; I’m more or less expecting that the next issue of this series will be its final one, and even if it returns after Age of Revelation, I’m pretty sure I won’t be. This series has never clicked with me, and I think it’s time to give up on it.
Planet Death #1 – Sometimes you just want a big loud science fiction battle in your comics, and in those times, this is where you want to go. This Bad Idea book is a collaboration between writer Robert Venditti with the creator of John Wick (which I’ve never seen), with terrific artwork by Tomás Giorello. It’s about a soldier who is one of hundreds of men being sent to an alien world to destroy a weapon so he can come home. We get the alien equivalent of the opening of Saving Private Ryan for most of the issue, and while there’s not much more depth than that, it’s still pretty cool thanks to Giorello. I do wish Bad Idea was still doing their B-side backup stories rather than giving preview pages for an upcoming book; I felt a little cheated when this expensive issue ended with so many pages left for filler.
Robin and Batman: Jason Todd #3 – I love when Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen work together on projects like this. Jason, new to his role as Robin, is being lured away from Batman’s mission by a Scourge-like anti-hero called The Wraith. Jason starts working with him as they target drug dealers. Jason’s family history, and his mother’s death by overdose, inform his choices, and the question becomes one of whether or not he’s learned from Batman. The story is told well, and looks great. The only thing that bugged me was the suggestion that Barbara Gordon was operating as Oracle at this time; I always thought there was a small window between Killing Joke and Death in the Family, and that Barbara first worked with the Suicide Squad before expanding her operation to support Batman. It’s a continuity quibble, but it bugged me.
The Sixth Gun: Battle For The Six #2 – I’m really happy this book is back on the stands. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, especially after a multi-year absence from them, but I’m getting back into the swing of things. The Hunting Party, which is what our various heroes are called when they’re together, are splitting up to try to stop the Cabal from reassembling the Six, powerful magical weapons (which are no longer just guns) and using them for nefarious purposes. Brian Hurtt’s art is perfect for this book, and it’s nice to see him and Cullen Bunn returning to their greatest collaboration.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra – Chaos Agent #3 – I’m pretty happy with this new Doctor Aphra miniseries. This issue has her accompanying Han Solo and some dignitaries to retrieve a priceless artifact from a gangster type. Of course, there are layers of double-dealing and double-crossing, because that’s what an Aphra story requires. The writer, Cherish Chen, has a good handle on Aphra, and the artist, Gabriel Guzman, is terrific. His work is dense and feels more old-school than a lot of modern artists, while still feeling very contemporary. I definitely want to see more work from him.
Ultimate Spider-Man #20 – One of my favourite things about James Robinson’s Starman series was the semi-regular ‘Times Past’ issues. It seems that with this book, Jonathan Hickman has a semi-regular thing too, but this is ‘Dinner with the Osborns’. Peter and Mary Jane meet with their friends for a frank discussion of their goals and methods, and we see, once again, that Mary Jane is probably the most interesting character in this book. At the same time, Richard has a chat with his Uncle Ben, and Hickman moves some of the secondary characters’ stories forward as well. This is a great title.
Void Rivals #22 – Things are really heating up in this series, as the Zertonians attack the Agorrians. Conor Hughes is really working out as the new artist on this title.
West Coast Avengers #10 – It’s too bad that this title couldn’t make it in today’s market, as the concept that Tony, Rhodey, and a few others, are using an Avengers team to redeem former villains, is a good one. Gerry Duggan tossed the right amount of humour into this book, and Danny Kim’s art is nice (and showing constant improvement; this issue had a lot of very nice pages). This issue wraps up the fight with Ultron, and deals with the threat to Killer Watt’s father. I hope we see Killer Watt again, as he was a likeable character.
X-Men #21 – With Scott still locked up in the county jail, Magik leads a small squad in an attack on the Upstarts, Trevor Fitzroy’s group. Jed MacKay and Netho Diaz give us a solid fight scene that leads to further evolution for Jen, the newest mutant to join the team. I hate that Sugar Man is in this comic; I’ve long felt he’s one of the worst villains in Marvel’s stable, but I’m intrigued by the location he goes to at the end of the issue. It looks like the next issue gets the Age of Revelation stuff underway, which I’m not very excited about.
X-Men: Tooth And Claw #1 – We get another release of some of the X-Men digital comics in physical form, again written by Alex Paknadel. In the first, Magneto kind of confronts his legacy again (it still bothers me that so much of the work Al Ewing did with his character is being ignored now). Beast is also dealing with the fact that he became so twisted in the X-Force series (technically, he’s not the same guy now – an Avengers-era backup was restored into a new body). When he meets a mutant whose power is to basically become the people around him, it gives him some insight into himself. These are decent enough stories, but I’ve yet to read any that make me think I need to sign up for Marvel Unlimited.
You’ll Do Bad Things #6 – I really admire the ambitiousness of this story. Tyler Boss gave us an interesting take on a writer with writer’s block, whose attempts at new novels kept taking dark turns, with characters getting killed gruesomely, just as the same murders took place in real life. This issue reveals everything that was really going on, and while it’s a little hard to swallow, it does make for an effective and new story. I like how he took a big swing on this, and I’ve really enjoyed Adriano Turtulici’s artwork.
The Week In Music:
Phi-Psonics – Expanding To One – It sounds a little like the members of Phi-Psonics have been listening to some Carlos Niño records, as for their third album, the band has gone a lot more improvisational and loose, creating curious soundscapes that fit the general tradition of most Gondwana Records releases, but also chart their own path. This is a pretty chill record.
Carlos Niño & Friends – Extra Presence – As a big Carlos Niño fan, I was really excited to find a Japan exclusive copy of this double album on CD recently. I can imagine that Niño and his friends are an acquired taste for some people, and I find the odd track on her a little annoying, but when he and his collaborators lock in, the work they produce is incredible. On this album he works with frequent collaborators like Jamael Dean, Migel Atwood-Ferguson, Deantoni Parks, Nate Mercereau, Sam Gendel, Josh Johnson, Iasos, and Laraaji. I think the second half is my favourite, with a surprise appearance by Shabazz Palaces, an edit of his work with Thandi Ntuli, and a twenty-plus minute long ambient exploration with Iasos. This is some very good stuff.
SZA – SOS: Lana Deluxe – I liked the original SOS album, but found it too long. I was more impressed with the ‘Lana’ part of the deluxe release, but don’t really understand why it wasn’t released as its own album. Lana has a slightly more indie feel to it, but since the only way to own it is with the original SOS album, I’m glad I never bought that when it came out. Lana, like SOS, is also a little too long. I think SZA could have paired all of this material down into an incredible twelve-track album. I enjoy SZA’s voice and writing, but wish the production wasn’t so pop-oriented and clean.
Olafur Arnalds & Talos – A Dawning – I’ve reached the point where I know I want to listen to anything that Icelandic piano composer Olafur Arnalds is involved with, but I didn’t expect this collaboration with the recently deceased singer Talos to be this pretty. I wasn’t familiar with Talos’s work before this, but found his voice arresting. Arnalds’s piano and instrumentation is gorgeous, and this makes a very satisfying listen.
