Best Comic Of My Week:
The Peril of the Brutal Dark #3 & 4 – I love this odd mashup of hardboiled detective novels with Indiana Jones adventure archeology. Ezra Cain is getting closer to figuring out what ‘The Brutal Dark’ is, as he investigates the German-owned clock factory, and has run-ins with his former boss and his former girlfriend. It’s clear that writer Chris Condon is building out this character and his world for a potential longer run, which I hope happens. Jacob Phillips continues to prove why he’s one of the best artists in the business on this book. I am really enjoying the new Vertigo…
Quick Takes:
Detective Comics #1108 & 1109 – I like this current storyline, which retcons a character named Prion into a bit of a team that also included Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary about ten years ago. Tom Taylor is good at adding layers to these characters while not shifting things around too much. We don’t know much about Prion (neither did his friends), but we know he’s been dead for a while, and now a young girl keeps turning up who seems to know things about him. I love when this book has some kind of mystery at its core, and Taylor is good at that kind of thing. The art, mostly by Pete Woods and Mikel Janín, is very nice.
Green Lantern #34 & 35 – I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this title now. It’s cool that it seems to be centring Kyle Rayner much more than Hal Jordan (whose story apparently continues in Emperor Aquaman), but I still don’t really like either character. Kyle’s running around Los Angeles rounding up criminals that escaped Oa, but is then sidetracked into a story about Odyssey needing plastic surgery for a movie role, while Hal is following his hunch in deep space and comes across the Guardians. I do like the new character that Jeremy Adams introduces – a kid whose father sent him into space to avoid the Y2K virus – and find that storyline more interesting. This book is kind of spinning its wheels, or just searching for meaning right now. I’ll give it a bit longer to see if it works things out, but I think I’m about done with it.
Justice League Intergalactic Special #1 – I both like the way DC keeps putting out these seemingly random team-up one-shots under the Justice League banner, but I also dislike the way they then lead into some other miniseries or book. This book spotlights Galaxy (who I know nothing about) and Dreamer (who I’ve become familiar with), as they head to space to help the people of Naltor, Dreamer’s people, against a supposedly magical threat. Cowriters Jadzia Axelrod and Nicole Maines take a very light approach to this book, aiming for a lot of banter and bickering, but also manage to tell a good story that helps to redeem Dreamer a little after her misadventures in the Absolute Power event. This story sets up a weekly miniseries that I didn’t preorder, and am a little curious about now, but am likely going to get in a trade or as a set. It’s cool that DC is giving space to emerging writers.
Vampirella #1 & 2 – I have completely lost track of how many times Priest’s now years-long run on Vampirella has been relaunched, and I don’t know why they did it this time. There is no way they can still get a sales bump from a new number one, especially when they’ve made so many and each has like thirty variant covers, but then, I’ve never understood Dynamite’s publishing strategy. This new volume doesn’t explain how Vampirella returned from the Old West, which is where we last saw her, but we do now have Draculina, who is very unhappy, visiting Dr. Chary for therapy (he thinks she’s Vampirella in a wig). This new run, which again involves Dracula, sibling rivalry, and the delightful Katie, is nicely drawn by Davis Goetten, and is off to a good start. Is this one going to last until they renumber it at 700? Or are we looking at another relaunch before then?
Viking Moon #3 – I’m enjoying this horror series set in Vinland. The Vikings who have come to settle this land find themselves fighting massive werewolves, and discover that the brother of Leif Ericsson is alive and still on the land, living with the Indigenous people there. Joe Pruett is doling out the information well here, and Marcelo Frusin’s art is as dark and forbidding as ever. This is a solid series that reminds me of old Vertigo books.
The Week In Music:
Flea – Honora – This has been out for a while now, but hasn’t really left my rotation or my thoughts in that time. Flea is best known as the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is not really my thing, but for this album, he mostly plays trumpet with a true Justice League-like assemblage of musicians I adore. Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, Anna Butterss, and Deantoni Parks are all people whose own projects I’ve listened to for years, and they make up the core of Flea’s band. Also on here are Rickey Washington and guest vocalists Warren Ellis, Thom Yorke, and Nick Cave. Flea moves through a few types of jazz, including the kind that Parker and his friends most often make, and that makes the album kind of thrilling. I was lucky enough to see Flea perform this, and the performance was incredible. This album reminds me of when Andre 3000 picked up his flute and worked with other musicians I like (I can’t remember if Parks is on that album, but he definitely toured with him), and created a completely new thing. It’s really cool to see aging famous people try, and succeed beautifully, at something new. This is going to be among my top albums of the year, I can tell.
Yaya Bey – Fidelity – A new Yaya Bey record is always reason to celebrate. She has this way of taking what sounds on the surface like a typical hiphop inflected r&b number and elevating it through superior writing. I’m not sure if Bey makes her own beats (there are no credits with this CD), but the selection here is impeccable, as she explores the shifting of Black culture. She is a very powerful writer and singer, and should be someone whose name rings out more than it does.
Ka – The Thief Next To Jesus – I was really happy when Ka’s widow opened up his webstore once again and I was able to snag four of his albums on CD. Ka passed away almost two years ago, and The Thief Next To Jesus was his last album. When it came out I was struck by how elegiac and thoughtful it was, and listening to it after his passing, it’s impossible to not hear it as somehow prophetic. Ka was the kind of rapper who always looked back on how his life shaped him, and this album has him exploring his youth and the consistent sense of not having enough that followed him through his life. He makes many references to death and legacy on this album, which makes it hit very differently today. Ka was an incredible writer, known for his minimal approach to using his pen, but that same holds true for his production skills, and the soulful beats he employs here. This album really is a masterpiece.
