What a busy week that was! I’m amazed I found time to read any comics at all!
Best Comic of My Week:
Lazarus: Fallen #4 – Forever and Infinity are on the run with the Paris Free, a cell that has been resisting the state of the world. Sonja Bittner, Forever’s former friend, has joined the hunt, and while this goes on, things are getting more and more tense in the Carlyle family. Greg Rucka’s series is feeling ever more topical as the real world catches up to his and Michael Lark’s bleak vision of the future. While this is an excellent comic, with sharp writing and lovely art, it’s the letter page that is going to stick with me from this one. Rucka writes very succinctly about authoritarianism, facism, and resistance in response to a letter from a reader, and it helps me better verbalize a lot of what I’ve been feeling about the state of the world.
Quick Takes:
Daredevil #25 – At the end of Saladin Ahmed’s run, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed. I’ve liked some of Ahmed’s other books, especially his run with Miles Morales, but I think Marvel should have left more time and space after Chip Zdarsky’s excellent run. This one was marred by having to work with the way Zdarsky left Matt with a new identity, but also with what appeared to be a mandate to force appearances by other heroes. There was still a lot of potential here, but the demon storyline ran too long, and then it felt like Ahmed didn’t have much more to say. This final issue shows us a fight with a much larger than normal Kingpin, who used the new purpose his conversion to Christianity gave him to become an expert in a number of martial arts? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and I say that as a fan of the way Bill Sienkiewicz drew Fisk. I didn’t like that this run cost more than the standard Marvel comic (why was each issue $5?), and thought that the covers by John Romita Jr. were some of the worst he’s ever done. I think it’s time to let Daredevil lie fallow for a while until someone comes with something new to say about the character. Zdarsky’s run was excellent, but this one felt like an afterthought, and I need time to forget it.
Detective Comics #1001 – Tom Taylor and Mikel Janín start a new arc in this issue. A mysterious ghost ship filled with bodies turns up in Gotham Harbor, and Batman’s investigation made me think of the old Crossed comic. Something happened to the people on the ship that caused them to die at different times, and from a variety of means, including fighting one another to death. It looks like someone is experimenting on people, and that Gotham is in danger. I like straight-forward Batman stories that don’t need to remake everything, and that lean on Batman’s detective skills. I also really like the way Janín draws this book.
Escape #2 – Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña take this issue to flesh out our main character, a pilot who has crashed behind enemy lines and is determined to complete his mission and destroy his target. He knows his chances aren’t good, as he’s alone in a very hostile city where everyone looks different from him (he’s a dog, and the enemies are bats in this anthropomorphized version of WWII). As he prepares to carry out his duty, he reflects on his life, and we see how he fell for a woman who changed his whole life. He signed up to fight because of his wife and unborn child, and now he is wrestling with the knowledge that he’ll never see them again. This is a very well-written comic, and Acuña’s art and colours are perfect for it. This book is off to a terrific start.
Justice League Unlimited #11 – As we get closer to the K-O event (which I know has actually started, but I’m in a time delay) the League faces a few threats. They are trying to save the life of the Time Trapper, while Mr. Terrific has to fight some Parademons on his own, and another squad journeys to the centre of the Earth to find some strange stuff. Mark Waid has been building to this next event, and while I wish this title and the massive team it chronicles would get one quiet issue between massive threats. Dan Mora continues to blow me away with the quality and speed of his art.
New From The Fall Out #4 – Chris Condon and Jeffrey Alan Love’s bizarre zombie story receives a new layer in this issue, as the few survivors of the diner decide to hide out in an abandoned silver mining town when the infected soldiers from the base start spreading out into the desert. I continue to be intrigued by Love’s art, which is all silhouette. It makes details hard to understand, but looks very cool most of the time. This is a cool little project.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra – Chaos Agent #4 – As Aphra continues her less-than voluntary work with DAGGER, she and Chewbacca are sent to a backwater planet to oversee the coronation of a child king. It doesn’t seem like the type of mission you’d send her on, until we learn that there are reports that Krrsantan is looking to kidnap the child. This is another solidly entertaining issue. Cherish Chen has a good handle on Aphra’s character, and artist Kieran McKeown is very decent. I know this series ends with the next issue, but I wish it was continuing.
Storm #12 – I was excited for this Storm series, especially when Lucas Werneck was drawing it, but I fear that Murewa Ayodele’s story just kept spiraling out of control, until this became a Storm book in name only. He wants to tell a massive cosmic story better suited to a character like Quasar than Storm, and it makes for an awkward fit. I really wanted to like this book, but I’ve found it increasingly hard to follow, as most of this final issue (before a relaunch in the winter) focuses on a conversation between Eternity and the being that created him. I appreciate when writers take big swings, but the combination of poor editorial shepherding and the accelerated pace of making this story reach a good place for the Age of Revelation pause left me behind. I don’t imagine I’ll be returning when this book does, which is a shame. Storm is one of my all-time favourite characters, but I don’t see her in this.
Wonder Woman #25 – As Diana continues to search for someone in the island nation of Mouse Man, she is confronted with her sense of responsibility to the clearly oppressed inhabitants. Throughout the book, though, we’re shown glimpses of a future where someone is executing the biggest heroes of the DCU, and they all die with Diana’s name on their lips. I am a little tired of Tom King framing every story in this series in terms of what is happening in the future, but otherwise, I’m amused by the society he portrays here. This whole run has been a little weird, but I’ve liked it.
The Week In Music:
Above Top Secret – Disobey – Above Top Secret is a Toronto alternative hiphop band that has taken a very different turn on this album. Producer Sun Sun has created a bunch of driving beats that are basically drum and bass, and she sings alongside vocalist Witch Prophet on a series of songs that reveal a punk ethos. They’ve added a new drummer and guitar player to the group, and the sound is liking I’ve heard from them before (Witch Prophet has a long solo career, backed by Sun Sun’s beats). This album is highly reflective of the times we are living in, and does a great job of expressing discontent and the need to disobey. I like it a lot.
Mappe Of – Afterglades – Mappe Of is Canada’s answer to Bon Iver. He’s a multi-instrumentalist (he plays like 20 different things on this album) who explores alternative folk music. I don’t always think of gear-head folk, but Tom Meikle does that well on this album. Like his previous work, there’s a heavy fantasy or science fiction influence on his songwriting, as he constructs worlds. It’s a really pretty album that I keep coming back to, and each time I do I notice something different. It has a lot of layers to it.
Gabe ‘Nandez & Preservation – Sortilège – Backwoodz Studioz, the record label that put this out, is in the middle of a historically significant run of stupendous underground albums, and this one is going to be recognized as having a powerful part of that. Gabe ‘Nandez is an interesting rapper, with a voice that often sounds thick. Preservation is a generational producer who is constantly shifting his sound and making his work fit perfectly with whoever he is making beats for. Together, they’ve made a classic record. ‘Nandez is joined by billy woods (both alone and with ELUCID as part of Armand Hammer), Benjamin Booker, and Koncept Jack$on, but they aren’t really needed (which I never say about a woods verse); ‘Nandez has this one completely under control. This is an album I’m going to be spending a lot of time studying. The second to final track, Kurtz, which involves the central character of Apocalypse Now!, is worth writing some essays about.
