I was away for the last week, but managed to make it through the small stack of comics I took with me. I’m hoping to spend the next month seriously catching up on my reading.
The Best Comic of My Week:
If Destruction Be Our Lot #1 & 2 – Matthew Rosenberg excels at creating strange and unexplainable future landscapes. In this new series, co-written with Mark Elijah Rosenberg, we are shown a future where robots are all that’s left of society. They go about their day, following programming that is no longer relevant, and avoiding Eaters, large creatures that wander around and eat them. A robot of Abraham Lincoln is looking for something more from life, and ends up causing a whole lot of problems for a friendly automated bus. Abe and the bus think they see a human, something unknown for eighty years, and soon Abe has the attention of the authorities, whose attempts to reboot him fail. This book reminds me of Rosenberg’s long-running (and hella late) What’s The Furthest Place From Here, in that it doesn’t feel the need to explain the new society it shows, and lets us discover it on our own as the story unfolds. Andy MacDonald was a good artistic choice for this book, as he makes this society strange yet familiar. I’m not sure how long this is set to run, but I’m into it.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Martian Manhunter #11 – I know that the final issue of this series is out, but I brought the top of my stack with me on vacation without checking to see what would be released while I was gone. This issue has Despair-O really messing with John, causing him to review key moments from his life and suggesting that the Martian has been with him through all of it. It’s interesting how writer Deniz Camp pulls the rug out from under our understanding of the series so far, setting the next issue up to be completely unpredictable. As always, Javier Rodriguez makes this book a one-of-one, with his excellent art and original page designs.
Absolute Superman #19 & 20 – This series continues to be a wild ride, as the Absolute version of Teth-Adam fights Superman, Hawkman, and John Henry Irons. Jason Aaron gives us a really interesting look at Teth-Adam, and we get to know Hawkman a little better too, as the unlikely trio of heroes struggle against Adam’s incredible power. Along the way, we learn a bit about prophecy, and see something shocking happen to R’as Al Gaul. This series is exciting and feels very fresh; I like how Aaron writes Kal-El, and I love Rafa Sandoval’s art. This is all very exciting stuff.
Batgirl #19 & 20 – I continue to be so impressed with all that Tate Brombal has added to Cassandra Cain’s character, giving her new family members, and exploring her connections to her mother’s world. Issue nineteen wraps up the storyline that had her receive a bloodline curse, while issue twenty launches a new story that involves her father and the deliberate staging of the murder of a child to lure Cass into something. Brombal’s writing is great, and I have grown to like the supporting cast a lot. Takeshi Miyazawa’s art continues to be my preference for this book, but Stephen Segovia’s work on his issue is pretty good too.
Batman #9 & 10 – Matt Fraction accelerates Batman’s plans to deal with Vandal Savage and the police force, without really giving us much of a hint of what he’s really up to. He has his family remove certain things from his various bunkers and caches around Gotham, just as the police come to raid them, and the consequences of that lead to Barbara Gordon’s new Breakout series. After that, Batman goes on a bit of a tear to show the city that he hasn’t been intimidated by Savage’s moves. This book, under Fraction’s hands, is interesting, but hits on story elements that feel pretty familiar by now. Ryan Sook’s guest issue looks fantastic, as does the issue drawn by regular artist Jorge Jimenez.
Daredevil #2 & 3 – I hadn’t originally planned on picking up this Daredevil run, because I was disappointed in Stephanie Phillips’s run on Phoenix, but this is actually pretty good and has me interested. There’s a killer cutting the eyes out of his victims, and it seems that he wants Matt Murdock for some reason. Matt has a hard time sensing this guy, but after some training with Spider-Man (which feels like a bit of a sales boost attempt), he goes looking for him. Lee Garbett’s art is really nice, and it feels like he should have been drawing DD a long time before now. I don’t know if I see the start of a long run here, but I’m hoping this book gets some stability again; it’s been hard for anyone to follow Chip Zdarsky’s excellent run.
Fantastic Four #10 – 12 – Ryan North’s excellent Fantastic Four run continues with a return to single-issue stories that highlight new ways of thinking about the characters and their power sets. First, the Invincible Woman (Sue’s evil doppelgänger) story is resolved, then we have an issue about an old FF villain using Doom-tech against them, before Reed and Johnny head back to Ancient Rome and find an alien invasion. All of these issues were entertaining. I was amused to see how much new artist Pat Boutin’s style resembles regular artist Humberto Ramos’s.
JSA #19 & 20 – The Spectre has returned, but without a human host it has no limit to its anger and desire to mete out vengeance for every possible sin. While the adult members of the JSA try to hold it back, poorly, the younger members race to find Jim Corrigan, although no one knows where he is. I like how Jeff Lemire is approaching writing this team in a way that is reminiscent of the best of Geoff Johns’s run, but still feels new and singularly its own. This is a good, straight-up superhero book.
Ultimate Endgame #4 – As I wrap up the Ultimate books, I figured there’d be enough going on that it made sense to write about them in story order. The penultimate issue of Ultimates Endgame pulls out all the stops, as the fight inside the Dome goes wrong in different ways, while outside, the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive to help, and Captain America finds that he might not be able to defeat Captain Britain. It’s an exciting, chaotic issue that makes me glad I already have the next one in my pile.
The Ultimates #24 – This was an exceptionally satisfying issue, as She-Hulk fights to liberate her island at the same time that Shen Qi fights to liberate Heaven. They both get to take on the Hulk, as Deniz Camp shows that collective action wins out. I’ve really enjoyed this series and am sad that it’s ending with this issue (and a big wrap-up one-shot). The fresh takes on various Marvel characters have been interesting and often inspired.
Ultimate Endgame #5 – I’ll give it to Deniz Camp, he knows how to write a satisfying ending, as the collected heroes of the Ultimate Universe team up to take on the Maker. We get some interesting final insights into Doom, and a lot of great action scenes. I like that this doesn’t really close the door on the Ultimate Universe, like I thought it might (although I guess the next book will say more on that topic).
Ultimate Universe: Finale #1 – Each creative team was given a few pages to wrap up their series in this issue, and while I would have liked to read more from Deniz Camp about how the world order would have changed a month after the defeat of the Maker, I was still happy with what we got. Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto made it clear that misadventures would continue for the entire Parker family, while Chris Condon decided to flip a Marvel tradition and have Logan seek out Sabretooth on a particular day. I liked this book, and am going to miss the Ultimate line. I’m still shocked that Marvel didn’t choose to run it until the wheels came off, and hope that the same kind of thing will happen with this upcoming Midnight line. I only read three of the Ultimate books in the end, but appreciate them, especially Ultimates. I see that there is a teaser that says these characters will return; when that happens, I hope it’s Camp that is writing it.
X-Men #29 – 32 – Jed MacKay’s X-Men run has hit and maintained its stride lately. The first two of these issues, drawn by the excellent Netho Diaz, wrap up the Danger Room storyline, showing the team changing tactics to defeat the psychopaths who have arrayed a number of threats in an attempt to take the team down. After that a new arc starts that has the ‘science team’ travel to Canada to figure out what’s going on with a Cerebro signal. This leads them to confrontation with Department H (but not Alpha Flight), and again has them using their abilities in a coordinated fashion. Tony Daniel has come on to draw this story, which was a surprise. I think this is my preferred X-Book these days.
