Best Comic of My Week:
The City Beneath Her Feet #3 – I’m glad to have finally gotten to the end of this excellent DSTLRY series by James Tynion IV, Elsa Charretier, and Jordie Bellaire. This series more or less poses the question of what would have happened if the titular character in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were real, and the existence of her books put her and their author in danger. Our main character is a self-doubting writer who fell for a mysterious killer, and in fictionalizing her, got her killed. Now the same people are after the author, and she has to rely on the killer’s business partner to try to figure out how to save herself, even though she’s not really convinced she’s worthy of saving. Tynion does terrific character work in this series, and Charretier’s art, matched with Bellaire’s colours, is perfect for it. This feels a bit like a Darwyn Cooke comic, which is high praise. On the superior paper, and with the larger page size of a DSTLRY comic, it looks and feels fantastic. I’m so happy to see that this publisher seems to have worked out its issues and is making its way back to the stands.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Martian Manhunter #12 – I think the decision to end this series with issue twelve was the right one. Deniz Camp and Javier Rodríguez put together a truly memorable and original story, and I think they accomplished everything they had to say with these first twelve issues. Continuing it past this point would have likely led to diminishing returns. The Jones family face what’s been going on, as John sees life from his wife’s perspective and comes to an understanding of what the Martians have been doing. It’s very psychedelic and a little hard to follow in places, but it’s also a shining example of the type of story that can only be effectively told through comics. I see that this creative team is going to be making a Shadow of the Bat series, and I’m excited to see what that’s like.
Adventures of Superman: Book of El #10 – I like this title, but I think I’m ready for it to end. I think it’s too bad that Philip Kennedy Johnson’s large sale got shunted into this miniseries, but I’m glad he got to finish it (I assume this is the end of it). It’s just kind of feeling like an afterthought at this point, though.
Assorted Crisis Events #9 – I’m so happy to see this book back on the stands after a brief hiatus. This issue takes a look at a person who took a temp job through an app that has assigned him the job of foot soldier in a war between two time lords. Basically, if you’ve ever wondered about the various individuals who fight for Kang or Immortus in Marvel Comics, this issue gives you an idea of what life is like for them. It reminds me a bit of that issue of Invisibles that focused on a random soldier, but with a lot more time-related weirdness. Like every issue of this groundbreaking series by Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki, it’s excellent, and masterfully executed.
Batgirl #21 – Cassandra is trapped in her memories while her friends face arrest by the GCPD. I like that Tate Brombal is making use of Bronze Tiger, who has always been a favourite character of mine, and that after spending more than a year on Cass’s maternal family, he’s starting to focus on her history on her father’s side. This series has been consistently very good and dependable.
Batman #11 – Matt Fraction’s run on this title has been really popular, and I like it, but don’t really see it as particularly breaking new ground. It’s cool that the GCPD is after him, and that an assassin is after Bruce Wayne, and this Minotaur threat is interesting, but I’m not connecting with the story on an emotional level all that much. Still, things look really cool with Jorge Jimenez drawing it, and I have faith in Fraction’s writing.
Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia #4 – I really enjoyed this whole miniseries by Gabriel Hardman, and was trying to not worry too much about continuity while reading it, but he ends the story with a move from Batman that makes it clear the story is out of continuity and could never make it part of continuity, but also doesn’t really match with the rest of the story. Beyond that, I liked how this felt a bit like a lower-key Bond movie, but with costumed heroes. Batman and his allies (this last issue shows that none of them are really friends) have each come across an enforced labour camp being run by a wealthy businessman who is pretending to care about environmental issues, and their approaches to putting a stop to it are interesting. Hardman is a terrific artist (see the Twilight Zone, below), and has an impressive, old school approach to doing work like this. It reminded me of the days of Denny O’Neill’s Question and Mike Grell’s Green Arrow.
Daredevil #4 – Stephanie Phillips is continuing to build this current story, and provide some ground for future ones. DD’s fight with the Omen doesn’t go well, then he has to deal with The Owl, while the police continue their investigation. This series is off to an interesting start, and Lee Garbett’s art really draws my attention. When he draws Young Matt in a flashback, it reminds me so much of JRJR’s work with the character, which is a good thing.
Detective Comics #1110 & 1111 – I’m enjoying this Flight story arc, which has Batman, Black Canary, and Green Arrow dealing with some leftover stuff from when they were a short-lived superhero team, working with a young hero named Prion, who ended up dying. Now his daughter has turned up, and it seems she’s a deadly assassin, but also kind of mind-controlled. Tom Taylor has set this story up nicely, and Mikel Janín is drawing the hell out of it. I like this Prion character, and the way that the early days of the heroes is getting re-examined. My biggest complaint about the post-Flashpoint DC era is that I never know if heroes have shared history or not. I like the way this fills in some gaps.
Die: Loaded #7 – Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans kind of pulled the rug out from under the main character of this series last issue, and now she’s scrambling to get everyone home again. Like in the first run, one of the characters needs to find a daily supply of ‘fair gold’, so that quest takes up a good amount of this issue. I still find it a little odd that Gillen decided to return to this world, but he is approaching it somewhat differently from last time, and it’s interesting.
Exquisite Corpses: Rascal Randy #1 – I ended up enjoying the Exquisite Corpses series a lot more than I expected I would, and was happy to see that it’s continuing in a number of miniseries and/or one-shots. Rascal Randy was a killer in a giant rabbit suit in that series, and was one of the only characters to survive the Battle Royale plot. Now, writer Tyler Boss and artist Dylan Burnett, are telling the story of what Randy got up, but maintaining the complete distance we had from the character in the first book (he never speaks or takes off his mask). We’re introduced to a couple of characters in a small town; a bullied teen and another teen who just moved into town. It turns out that the smaller kid’s grandfather created the Rascal Randy character. Burnett is the perfect artist for this kind of thing; I’ve liked everything I’ve read of his, and remember really enjoying his X-Force series from a few years ago. Boss is a great writer too, and while I’d rather see him keep working on What’s the Furthest Place From Here?, I’m happy to read this.
Fantastic Four #13 & 14 – This series is at its best when Ryan North is just using these characters to explore wild ideas. In issue thirteen, Johnny has this idea about impersonating the Ghost Rider to get his family’s enemies to back off, but it backfires. In issue fourteen, every human on the Earth is frozen by a strange string of numbers, and it’s down to Nikki and Jo to come up with an insane solution. Both issues are great. I was surprised to see Andrea Sorrentino draw issue thirteen – I’d wondered where he’d gone after his Bone Orchard stuff with Jeff Lemire fizzled out; he’s not the type of artist you would pick for this series, but he draws an amazing Ghost Rider, so this issue is perfect for him.
Green Lantern #36 & 37 – DC kind of back-doored us into reading a Kyle Rayner series, which is not something I would usually do on my own. I am liking the approach Jeremy Adams is taking to writing this series, even though I’m not always down for the light-comic, pop culture-referencing type of story. Kyle looks to be rekindling things with Jade, even while it’s clear that Odyssey might be into him. The weird aliens and burger-themed villains are strange, but it’s working well enough so far. I am kind of more interested in Hal’s storyline, though, which is barely present here.
JSA #21 – I like how Jeff Lemire is steeping this series in the JSA’s past while moving things forward at the same time. The adult members of the team are trying to deal with the Spectre, who has gone mad and is taking them over one by one in his quest for a host. The younger members of the team are being led around by Metron, who is showing them the Spectre’s long story. Not enough happens in this individual issue, but it keeps the excitement high, which I like.
Minor Arcana #16 – This is a powerful issue of this series, as it’s split between two times. For half the book, we see the beginning of Theresa and Missy’s friendship, and how it grew into more than that. We also see them in the present, as Missy wants Theresa to try her new skills on Brad, who is in a coma. The flashback scenes were drawn by Letizia Cadonici, and the difference in style between her work and regular artist Jeff Lemire’s is striking. This book keeps moving along at its own pace, and I appreciate how Lemire is structuring the story.
Nights #19 – I’m so happy that this series is back, and is focusing on Vince and Gray again. I enjoyed the prequel arc, but these two main characters are the reason I fell in love with this title, and I’m happy to be spending more time with them. Things are looking bleak though – Vince has been transformed in more ways than one, and while Gray is still with him, just about everyone else is gone. I’ll admit, I liked this series best when it felt like a slice-of-life but with monsters and powers kind of story, but I do like the fact that Wyatt Kennedy appears to have enough space to play out the entire story he originally envisioned telling.
The Peril of the Brutal Dark #5 & 6 – This series is not beating the Indiana Jones comparisons anytime soon. This terrific new series (which looks like it’s set to return in another miniseries) by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips, is set in pre-WWII America and centres on a private eye with an archeology background, who is caught up in a conspiracy by some German-Americans to use a device of mystical power to destroy American society. These last two issues go so far as to bring in a Nazi dirigible flying over Manhattan, Nazi robots, and a dog fight in a bi-plane. It would look great on the big screen. I was surprised that Condon was taking the story so far into realms typically associated with Mike Mignola’s work, but this was a very enjoyable series from start to finish, and I’ll be adding the followup to my pullfile for sure.
Starhenge Book Two: A Kiss For Atticus #1 – I’m going to admit that I don’t really know what’s going on in this book, but it’s pretty as hell, while also kind of menacing. Liam Sharp has a huge story in his head, and I’m not sure that he’s really transmitting it effectively, but I also find this book really compelling. It has a shifting narrative that lost me at times – I wasn’t sure whose voice we were hearing. There’s a man who walks through mud flats outside of a city, and is found by a robot? There’s a painter who hasn’t been able to paint a castle she envisions in her head. None of this feels connected to the first Starhenge miniseries (yet), which was also a little confusing but had clear characters. I’m not complaining; I find Sharp an interesting creator and I want to see his vision unfurl. Right now, this reminds me most of Dave McKean’s Cages, which I’ve always felt I should reread to better understand.
The Twilight Zone #8 – Gabriel Hardman wrote and drew this issue which focuses on an old actor whose career was tanked by his first film – a schlocky sea monster B-movie that he himself didn’t take very seriously. However, when through some Twilight Zone intervention, he finds himself back on the same studio lot where the movie was made, he makes an effort to fix the trajectory of his life. Hardman is an amazing artist, and this quiet black and white story helped showcase just why his is a name I’m always looking for.
Uncanny X-Men #31 & 32 – Aliens show up at the kids’ dance, Mutina shows up to help, and Gambit kind of turns into a dragon. This book keeps moving along. I notice that people are often comparing it to Claremont’s run, and while I don’t always see that, I do see that the same focus on intergenerational relationships exist, although in a less creepy way. It’s a little odd that Gail Simone is planning on moving Monet and Quicksilver to Louisiana, given that she’s keeping them busy in Westchester right now. This book is never perfect, but it holds my interest enough that I want to keep reading, and the younger characters have even started to really grow on me (except for the horse girl).
White Boat #3 – I’m glad that this DSTLRY series finally reached its conclusion. Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla have created a unique story about survivor’s guilt, luxury yachts, and secret scientific communities that is unlike anything else you’ll find on the stands. Our main character has dealt for years with the fact that his brother died in an ocean accident when they were children, but now, on the island, he’s been able to meet his brother again, and through the strange science of the White Boat, he might be able to heal the world. Both Snyder and Francavilla excel at this kind of horror story, and while much of this is strange, it works very nicely. Francavilla’s art looks so good on the oversized pages and high quality DSTLRY paper.
White House Robot Romance #3 – One of the things that make Chip Zdarsky an interesting writer of superhero comics is the way he’ll work in aspects of the current political or cultural moment, but it’s in his creator-owned titles, such as this terrific book, that he can really dig into some important topics while still telling a good comic book story. In this series, two robots that work in the White House – Service-1 and Chef-9 – fall in love with one another, and decide they need to escape. The thing is, Service carries the President’s secrets, including his real rationales for invading Canada. The story has roped in a number of elements – the Canadian Liberation Front, discussions of robot rights and self-determination, American tendencies towards accepting the lies of their leaders – and feels very topical, while also entertaining. I like the way Rachel Stott drew this book and changed the reader’s perception of the robots over the course of the story. This is a cool book.
Wonder Woman #34 & 35 – I’ve been getting tired of books set far into the characters’ future, so this whole Wonder War thing has been on my nerves. Issue thirty-four is very well done, showing Diana’s big fight with the Matriarch, but I think I enjoyed the interlude issue, thirty-five, a lot more. In it, Stephanie Wiliams and Clayton Henry show us another new take on Diana’s origin, as we learn about her learning about Hippolyta’s time with the Justice Society. I know that Tom King has a large story in mind here, but he’s not keeping my interest in the way that the first year of this title was able to.
The Week in Music:
Hanakiv – Interlude – One rule I live by is to buy anything that comes out on Gondwana Records; this label has never been wrong. The new Hanakiv is an ethereal and beautiful exploration of sound. This composer uses her piano and synths to lay out gorgeous beds of sound that are both lush and ethereal, and her vocals are gorgeous. This is a great album to start a quiet day with.
Web Web – Kover Kover – I’ve been listening to the German band Web Web for a while now, and always find their music to be innovative. For this album, they’ve created free-ranging covers of a number of ‘important’ bands like Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Talking Heads, the Eurythmics, and Kruder & Dorfmeister. I honestly haven’t listened to all of the original versions of some of these songs, so I only sometimes recognize or catch references, so to me, this stands more on its own as an enjoyable, lighthearted album. It’s the kind of groove-oriented jazz I like, and that’s enough for me to be happy. Well, that and their amazing rendition of Sweet Dreams, a song that always takes me back to childhood late night car rides home.
The Liquor Store – Right Place Wrong Time – I discovered this Montreal band this summer, and remain impressed by the breadth of what they do. Sometimes they’re a jazz band, but they bring in so many other elements – hiphop, r & b, and more – and provide listeners with constantly shifting experiences. It’s a big group, incorporating horns alongside guitars, keys, and drums, and this album is a lot of fun. I’m glad I found this group.
Kalia Vandever – Mana – I don’t really think of the trombone as being a particularly relaxing instrument, but in Kalia Vandever’s hands, it becomes an instrument of meditation and looking inward. On this album, Kalia plays for half of it before she begins to sing, and that feels like an act of withholding, because her voice is as lovely as her playing. This is a really beautiful album that surprised me, as I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. I saw Vandever play this summer in Montreal, and was blown away by what I heard. I’m on the hunt for her earlier work, as I want to know more about her output.
Laura Misch – Lithic – This is a difficult album to describe, because the work Misch has done is delicate, but also solid like the rocks that are referenced in the title. She’s created a number of sonic landscapes, full of field recordings as well as instrumentation, and her voice rides above it all, beckoning listeners into her world. It’s a very beautiful album.
Brother Wallace – Electric Love – I’m always in the mood for a new soul revival album, and this Brother Wallace one came out at a good time. He’s got a muscular approach to this kind of music, juggling piano and vocal duties. I’m not all that familiar with his band, but they bang. This could be music from fifty years ago, but it sounds so vital and impressive. He really rocks out on some of these tracks, but it’s the quieter ones that I find stick with me the most.
Sideshow – Tigray Funk – This is a very impressive album. Sideshow is very much a modern rapper – he’s not always concerned with clear enunciation or wordplay, but his work is so much more thoughtful and realized than a lot of his peers. This is a long album (32 tracks!) that never feels stuck or unnecessary, as Sideshow addresses a number of topics. Even more surprising is that this album has an on-going skit about a tiger that I don’t get sick of the way I have every other skit or spoken interlude on just about every rap album ever. Sideshow is part of MIKE’s 10K label, which is putting out some of the most innovative and interesting hiphop right now.
