Best Comic of My Week:
The War #2 – As a teenager, I started reading Stephen King’s The Stand while on a multi-day canoe trip, and as I lay uncomfortably in my sleeping bag, I couldn’t help but think about how something could have wiped out civilization while I was in the woods, and I wouldn’t know about it until we headed home (this was pre-cell phone days). This series, which focuses on a group of New York friends as the conflict between Russian and Ukraine goes nuclear, is good at tapping into old fears, especially reading this in such a busy week, politically speaking. Garth Ennis is taking this story very seriously, and the tension is thick. I was almost relieved when the last page of this issue veered into more traditional Day After material; if the rest of the series was just about David trying to keep the clearly depressed Nikki and their infant alive, I don’t know if my nerves could take it. Becky Cloonan is doing wonderful work on this book too, and I’m so happy to see her back to drawing like this.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Green Lantern #6 – Al Ewing has John Stewart, changed from his time in the Green Lantern, try to explain things to Jo and Hal, but many of the concepts he’s learned don’t translate well. I like how Ewing is remixing so many elements of the Green Lantern Corps and their world that we are familiar with, and making them strange and unpredictable in this series. I really like that he introduces us to Cameron Chase as well, as she’s a criminally underutilized character in the regular universe. This book is picking up, and I like how artist Jahnoy Lindsay uses panel borders and gutters, making this book look kind of European.
Adventures of Superman: Book of El #1 – I was a huge fan of Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Action Comics run that was set on Warworld. Johnson took the legend of Superman to new places with an intricate story that had many moving parts and characters. After it, there has been little acknowledgement that Clark and Lois adopted a pair of orphans from Warworld, one of whom acquired vast powers from a dead god or something. Now, Johnson is given the space to conclude his story, alongside artist Scott Godlewski. It looks like much of this will be set in a future where the Warzoon of Warworld have conquered the Earth. I like the twins, and that Johnson brings them back for this story, and I’m curious to see what he has planned. Godlewski is a great choice of artist for a Superman story, and things look great.
Avengers #30 – The Avengers head to Battleworld (from the Jonathan Hickman Secret Wars, not the Jim Shooter one) where they find Myrddin waiting for them, and are attacked by Marvel Zombies. I have to admit that the power creep in this book is starting to get to me – everyone seems so powerful. I like that they have the X-Men filling in for them on the Impossible City, but it would have made more sense to call in a team of reserves instead. This book is decent, but the concepts behind missing moments and eighth cosmoses are starting to lose me a little.
Batgirl #11 – I continue to really enjoy this book, and like how Tate Brombal has given Cassandra a new brother to get to know. The next story arc is set up in this issue as Cass and the Jade Tiger face two threats, and make a decision about their future. Takeshi Miyazawa continues to impress with the art here, and draws incredible fight scenes.
Birds of Prey #25 – With Inque, the villain who took control of Barda’s body, wanting to defect and help the Birds, we move into a new story arc. Barda’s not happy, but agrees that there are advantages to working with her. Kelly Thompson’s character work is great here, as usual, but we are given yet another reason for the Birds to play dressup, and it’s starting to feel a little tired. I also don’t remember why these villains are a problem.
Cheetah & Cheshire Rob The Justice League #2 – We’ve reached the point in this heist movie where it’s time to assemble a crew, and at first Cheetah and Cheshire have different ideas about who to bring in. I like how Greg Rucka is using some pretty obscure characters in this book (and annoying me by not identifying all of them). Nicola Scott’s art is luminous, as this continues to be a really fun book. I love these kind of oddball titles.
Closer #1 – I wish more comics creators would make short one-off stories like this one, even though I know that it must be financially nonviable. In Closer, Kieron Gillen and Steve Lieber tell the story of a young woman who somehow makes birds magically appear around her (and if you immediately thought of the Carpenters song, you are on the right track). This is an odd and effective little story that reminds me a lot of the type of things Gillen was doing with Phonogram when I first heard of him. Lieber is a master at realistic comics humour, and his ability to make something like this seem normal is impressive.
Everything Dead & Dying #1 – When I like a creative team, and see that they have a new book coming out, I just preorder it without reading what the comic is going to be about. Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips are both on my ‘buy just about anything’ list, especially if they’re on a creator-owned book, so I came into this series completely blind. We’re introduced to a farmer who has constructed his whole life out of sheer willpower. After being rejected by his whole small town for being gay, he found love with his husband and daughter, and when tragedy struck the world, he did his best to keep things going. This is an interesting take on a familiar genre (which I haven’t read in a while), and it has my attention. Brombal is a writer on the come up, and I’ve been impressed with his work. Jacob Phillips’s art reminds me a lot of his father’s, and I like how he is drawn to projects that focus on everyday people. This could be read as a horror version of That Texas Blood, Phillips’s breakout comic. I really enjoyed this issue and the way the horror elements are hinted at before being fully explained, and how it taps into post-pandemic anxiety.
FML #6 – Things are really ramping up in this book, as Riley and his father find another body while walking some dogs, and realize they are likely to be considered suspects. They do a bunch of things that make them look even more suspicious, while the women continue to try to figure out who killed the man they wanted dead, and the person we, the readers, suspect is still hanging out with Riley’s sister. This book, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez, is odd, but pretty addictive. I really like these characters, and the weird magical realism that is treated as normal.
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #12 – The Wrecker has come to get MK’s help, figuring that Marc still owes him after he helped free Khonshu. It seems that this villain is being haunted by ghosts, which does seem to fall into Marc’s department these days. This is another entertaining issue, as Jed MacKay continues his run, which is the best this character has seen in years.
Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #8 – This issue introduces a new leader for the Knights of Ren, a woman named Tava Ren, and shows us some of the goth metal group’s backstory, as we learn how Kylo ended up leaving them to work with the First Order. It’s kind of clear that Tava, who I don’t think turned up in Episode Nine, won’t make it through this story arc, but it’s still interesting to see how this plays out. It looks like Stefano Raffaele had fun drawing these characters.
Uncanny X-Men #20 – Gail Simone shines the spotlight on Ransom this issue, which I’m happy to see, as he’s the more mysterious of the Outlier characters. He’s learned that a half brother he has a lot of unresolved emotions about is embroiled with an anti-mutant cult back home in Buenos Aires, so he and Logan head there. The set up feels familiar, but Ransom is an interesting character, and it’s so rare to see Logan mentor a young man (he usually connects best with young women). Simone’s run is growing on me, just in time for it to get derailed by the Age of Revelation stuff.
White House Robot Romance #1 – Leave it to Chip Zdarsky to come up with such a ridiculous concept for a series, and to also spin it into pure gold. In this near-future, robots have been given key jobs in the White House, including security and food preparation. Service-1, a Secret Service robot that recently took a bullet for the President, has been maturing after their experience, and with that has come new emotions that are largely focused on Chef-9, the President’s chef robot who is the first to articulate their shared feelings. This forbidden romance plays out against a larger story that has the President laying the groundwork for an invasion of Canada based on falsified evidence of our (mine and Zdarsky’s) country harboring terrorists. There is also commentary about the place of robots in creative endeavours such as the arts. Rachael Stott makes these robots believable without overly anthropomorphizing them. I like how Zdarsky is playing with big current issues (Trump’s recent assertions that Canada become the 51st state, as well as the recent debate about AI artwork) but never moves too far from the central romance story. It’s another excellent book from DSTLRY.
Wolverine #13 – This is a bit of an odd one-off issue, as Logan gets called to repay a century old favour to a mob boss, and this delays him having a heart-to-heart with Nightcrawler about his recent experiences with his dead mother. I’ve found Saladin Ahmed’s run enjoyable, but am glad this foray into mob movie material was short lived. From here, this book is moving into Age of Revelation territory, and I don’t think I’m interested enough to stick with it for that. I don’t know if Ahmed will be returning to this title afterwards, or if things are going to get shaken up. I’m also not sure that I’ll be back with it, as this is one of Marvel’s more expensive titles, and I don’t know that I’m getting enough value for my money with it. Age of Revelation has been a good excuse to drop titles for me (just like the original Age of Apocalypse was the reason I stopped reading X-Men for a few years back in the day).
The Week in Music:
New Jazz Underground – Dying of Thirst – I’ve had this album in my stack since the start of July, but haven’t played it nearly enough. The New Jazz Underground had a killer set at the Montreal Jazz Festival, but the band’s lineup was different enough that this album doesn’t really represent what I saw. What it does do is recontextualize songs by Kendrick Lamar in a jazz vein. This album pairs really well in a playlist with one of my current favourite groups, Lavender Town, and I’d love to see them on a bill together. There’s a lot of talent on this record, and it might be a good way to introduce your mainstream rap fan friend to jazz.
Pino Palladino & Blake Mills – That Wasn’t A Dream – This is kind of an odd one, as super prolific studio musician legends Pino Palladino and Blake Mills collaborate on a rambling kind of ambient series of improvisations. They play bass and guitar, respectively, and are joined on some tracks by friends Sam Gendel, Chris Dave, and a few other people, including Pino’s son Rocco. This is a relaxing album that is often quite lovely, peaking with a thirteen minute piece.
Durand Jones & The Indications – Flowers – I love the classic soul sound that Durand Jones & The Indications revive on this album. I don’t always love the solo work of the members of this band (although the Okonski album this year was brilliant), but when they combine for an Indications record, the result is gold. This plies familiar soul waters, but sounds so good. I’m looking forward to seeing them perform this soon.
Nate Smith – Live-Action – Drummer Nate Smith has borrowed a page from Robert Glasper’s book with Live-Action, his latest album. He brought in some interesting collaborators for each song on here, and created a variety of songs that move from more traditional jazz through r&b to a fantastic cover of Automatic featuring Lalah Hathaway. This album is fun and impressive, and includes features from some favourite artists like Josh Johnson, Marquis Hill, Kiefer, and DJ Harrison.
