The Best Comic of My Week:
The Last Driver #1 – It’s always good news when Sean Murphy returns with a new series, and even better news when he’s working on something he owns. This new Image book is printed sideways, with the staples placed at the top of the cover instead of the side, giving him the opportunity to draw long double splash pages. In the future he envisions, cities have become a playground of the rich, and radically redesigned so that all transportation is handled by the grid, a network of self-driving capsules and cargo capsules. There is only one person left who actually drives, an illegal act, and his name is Clutch, a former smuggler. When he gets picked up for driving a slotcar, in violation of his parole, he orchestrates an escape, and is soon given an opportunity to save his granddaughter’s life by getting her across the city in a real car, on abandoned roads. This has the setup and aesthetic of a b-movie, and that’s what makes it work so well. It made me think of Mad Max, only not in a desert and without bondage freaks. Clutch’s description of driving as the thing that brought mankind together in common purpose is a bit much (imagine that being in individual cars can be seen as the social ideal), but it’s always interesting to see how people manifest their reaction to big changes. Murphy’s art is always wonderful, and he makes really good use of the elongated page. Reading the book sideways suits the subject matter, as Clutch’s progression from left to right is reminiscent of the road itself. I’m excited about this one.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Flash #18 – As Wally wants to go looking for Thrawne, she starts sending people after him, including the Absolute version of Solomon Zoom and another one of the Rogues who has been radically redesigned. This series is good, but always feels too decompressed for me.
Absolute Green Arrow #4 – We learn more about what Hector Hammond’s really been up to, and we learn Ollie’s final fate, as Dinah also learns the secrets of the Island (and it’s not got anything to do with the Epstein-like character, as we were led to believe). It’s a good issue, but very much a middle issue.
American Caper #10 – As this book continues, it keeps getting crazier. This issue introduces us to a crazed rapper who I’m guessing is loosely modeled on Kanye West, while the FBI continues their investigations, and most of the characters progress a little on their various arcs (although we don’t check in on everyone). Increasingly, I’m convinced that this series is a treatment for what could be a brilliant HBO show.
Avengers: Armageddon #3 – David Colton, who has unstoppable levels of power, has decided to get rid of the world’s nuclear missiles, starting with America’s, which puts the heroes in the position of having to stop him from doing something good, while also bearing the political consequences of his decisions. At the same time, Tony is realizing that every question he asks Doom’s prediction device also forces difficult ethical decisions (it’s clear that this is meant to be seen as a metaphor for asking AI what to eat for breakfast). Chip Zdarsky’s done a great job of making this a traditional superhero story that can also be read as an indictment of where we are as a society. As a tentpole event, it feels kind of loose and vaguely defined, but it’s also very relevant and compelling. The artist, Ario Anindito, does a very good job.
Barbara Gordon: Breakout #4 – I’m enjoying this book, but it’s both pretty decompressed, and moving quickly. It seems like the story moves slowly in places, but then new elements are introduced in a hurry, making it a little hard to follow. I know that it’s been established that Vandal Savage is using the prison the Barbara’s chose to get locked up in to take out his political enemies, but it’s strange that people are getting sentenced within a week (it’s not a jail). Anyway, I find it curious that this book isn’t tied into the Bad Seeds event (or so it seems), and wonder if that means that the Savage storyline is going to continue well past that.
Batman & Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #1– It’s always a cause for celebration when Mark Waid and Chris Samnee collaborate. They return to the first year that Bruce and Dick worked together, but as this series opens, we see that their relationship is in a good place, and they are working very well together. When Bruce goes on a date, he’s mugged by children, and that appears to be the crux of this new series. Samnee’s art is great, and I like the idea that we’re going to get a solid old school Bat-book for however long this story runs.
Bleeding Hearts #7 – It’s been a few months since Poke/Flower Boy saved Rabbit and her mother from his horde, and he’s been travelling with them ever since. Deniz Camp continues to do an amazing job of building this story, and the way he switches the narration between Poke and the mother means that we get a really solid understanding of how they both see things. Stipan Morian’s art is phenomenal, balancing its cartoonish aspects with the reality of how bleak this world is. This is consistently one of my favourite comics for both how sensitive and how wild it can be.
Die: Loaded #8 – This is one of those middle-of-the-arc issues, so while nothing groundbreaking or particularly shocking happens, it does move the story along, as the party finally get a map of Die, and familiar faces from the first series finally make their appearance. This book is really solid, with great work by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans.
Emperor Aquaman #20 – Neptune, the God of the Sea, comes to take Arthur’s new powers away from him, and finds that they are meeting on almost equal ground. The fight scene in this issue is pretty cool, as Jeremy Adams continues to establish just how powerful Arthur is now. I know that at some point, he’s going to lose these powers, but I hope Adams has time to tell some interesting stories before that.
Exquisite Corpses: Rascal Randy #2 – When I learned that there would be a miniseries about one of the few characters who managed to survive the Exquisite Corpses series, I didn’t think it would be like this. Tyler Boss is telling a story about the history of the character, who had a popular cartoon strip until some dirty dealings by a tycoon clearly modeled on Walt Disney came after it. We get some flashbacks to those days, as the two kids we met in the last issue figure out that the murder of the bully from the last issue was perpetrated by someone wearing the Rascal Randy suit that Eli keeps in his home. Dylan Burnett’s art is so good in this series, and I like the way Boss is continuing to build this story without giving much away.
The Fury of Firestorm #5 – As Ronnie relives his first days with the Justice League, Firehawk tries desperately to get past the Firestorm matrix to reach Ronnie’s consciousness. This series continues to redefine this character (who is almost fifty years old!), and I’m still not sure how I feel about that, but I do like that he’s back on the stands. I think the next issue will go along way towards revealing what Jeff Lemire has planned for this book.
Green Lantern Corps #19 – The fight with the Manhunters comes to its conclusion, as Guy and Jessica implement a new approach to working with the emotional entities instead of just using them. This looks to be making long-lasting changes to the Corps, as well as the other Corps, and I’m curious to see how it plays out. Morgan Hampton’s writing on this book is very good, and I enjoy the way he’s trying new things. I think I’m starting to like Guy Gardner too, which is unexpected.
Kaya #36 – Things are happening quickly for Kaya, especially after her new friends get caught stealing from the circus’s customers, and Jin gets closer to the Oracle, the leader of the robot army who wants him dead. Wes Craig’s maintained a high level of quality on this book for some time now. It’s a great read.
Of The Earth #4 – Things get a lot more tense in this issue, as Chris Condon and Andrew Ehrlich rely on some tried and true horror movie tropes, and Charlie Adlard ratchets up the creepiness factor. This is a really good horror series, in that the two main characters are fleshed out and compelling. Adlard’s colours (really, it’s mostly a lot of black) do a great job of helping make things feel more dangerous.
Starhenge: Book Two: A Kiss For Atticus #2 – I still have no idea what’s going on in this book, but Liam Sharp’s art is so pretty, I don’t really mind. This issue focuses mostly on a man, who appears to be hunting for monsters? We see him as a child, when two demons tried to fool him, and then later, when he looks a bit like the Black Panther. Sharp is throwing all sorts of styles into this book – it’s beautifully painted on some pages, while others have drawings that are a little (intentionally) child-like. This book is interesting, but I’m reading it like it’s a poem at this point, because I don’t really understand the story. Book One was kind of abstract, but it made a lot more sense than this one.
Star Wars: The Fall of Kylo Ren #1 – Marvel is back to filling in some gaps between the last two of the First Order trilogy, focusing on Kylo Ren’s leadership after he returned to the First Order after the events of his first series. This is decent stuff – the Order’s leaders have turned on one another, and Ren clearly has his preferences. Will Sliney draws some good space battle scenes, which is largely what I come to Star Wars comics for, so that made me happy.
Supergirl #16 – So, I wasn’t going to get into this Kingdom of Zod crossover that includes all of the Superman books, since I only read one of the four titles, but then I couldn’t help myself, again, and got sucked in. I haven’t read any of Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl (and to be honest, wasn’t originally sure that it was in the mainline continuity), so I had some catching up to do. Luckily the first pages did a good job of bringing new readers up to speed, and I learned about some country that is in possession of vast quantities of kryptonite and Kryptonian technology. When that country’s new leader invites Lois to come meet, Kara puts together a crew that includes Lena Luthor (who made anti-kryptonite shields that last for an hour) and some other heroes I don’t know. Anyway, this is a good beginning to the event, and got me interested in reading more.
Action Comics #1101 – So it would seem that somewhere between the end of the above issue of Supergirl, where Zod erects a kryptonite field around his island country, and the beginning of this issue, random pieces of kryptonite have turned up all over the planet, including inside people, creating a new plague. Zod is very angry, and explains why to Lois while the others try to fight the Eradicatrix and Zod’s forces. Superman returns, along with a few Justice Leaguers and his younger self, but are immediately stricken. This is kind of all over the place; I’m used to Mark Waid being the writer who can pull things together, but maybe it’s just because we’re still at the beginning. Still, I’m intrigued.
Transformers #35 – Various plotlines advance as everyone rushes to heal Shredhead after he sustained injuries in the last issue, while the Autobot jets explore the Himalayas and get attacked. This series continues to entertain me; I just don’t have a lot to say about this issue.
Ultimate Impact: Reborn #4 – I’m not sure that this series is working for me. The new characters that are being developed here are not given a lot of time to shine (and whose power set does the girl with the optometrist’s device stuck to her head get?), and the threat of Hostilicus doesn’t seem that serious. I like that someone is trying to create new characters (with established power sets, for the most part), but I don’t see these ones becoming fan favourites.
Wolverine #25 – The storyline involving Logan’s loss of his healing factor is resolved, as the members of Alpha Flight continue to act out of character (who even is this version of Marrina, because she has no similarity to the original depiction back when John Byrne created her?). I’ve enjoyed this storyline well enough. I think Wolverine must be an incredibly difficult character to write now.
X-Men United #6 – Either one person is attacking Graymatter Lane, or three different enemies are attacking at around the same time. There is still so much about this series that doesn’t work for me, and while it doesn’t contradict the other major X-titles, it doesn’t match well with them tonally. I think that this concept, that all of the world’s mutants have the ability to convene in a psychic school, works best with smaller stories focusing on less prominent X-Men. It feels weird that this series is not really acknowledged in any of the other books right now.
The Graphic Novel of the Week:
Fela: Music Is The Weapon – This was a terrific graphic novel by Jibola Fagbamiye and his co-writer Conor McCreery (probably best known for writing Kill Shakespeare). It tells the life story of the great musician Fela Kuti, and gives us a very unvarnished look at this complicated genius. We get a lot of context, depicting life in Nigeria under military rule, and how the tendrils of colonialism continued to dictate life in the post-independence era. We see how Fela struggled to find a place for his music until he traveled to America, and after entering a relationship with Sandra Izsadore, became more politically conscious and applied that to his music, creating Afrobeat. Fela was the biggest star in Nigeria, perhaps all of Africa, but his trickster nature could not keep him from poking at the government, going so far as to announce that he was going to run in elections. This book shows Fela’s meteoric rise, sharing such memorable anecdotes as when the authorities tried to plant weed on him, leading to him swallowing a joint and being locked up until he passed it, and when he and his band moved into his record label’s office since they refused to pay him. We also see what happens when the military leadership decided they had enough of him and decide to raid the Kalakuta Republic, his commune, throwing his mother out a window in the process. The book does not shy away from his faults – Sandra calls him out for his treatment of women, but he goes ahead and marries more than twenty of his ‘Queens’ on the same day. We see how he treated his band members, especially as he fell under the sway of Hindu, a spiritualist. Fagbamiye’s art is terrific – he makes good use of the comics format to tell this story in a way that could only work in a visual media like comics (and maybe animation), and he captures the excitement of sweaty nights at the Shrine, Fela’s club. There’s an odd framing sequence that takes place on the spiritual plane that I found annoying at first, but grew to appreciate in the later stages of the book. I also noticed that when Fela’s life became darker, so did the paper itself, switching from white borders and gutters to black. I love Fela’s music, and have always enjoyed hearing stories about him. I appreciate that this book exists, and that it helps continue to bring this story to new audiences. I’m really glad I picked this up at TCAF this year, and enjoyed getting to meet the creators. The best thing about this, that I didn’t find out until the very end, is that the inside cover was drawn by Lemi Ghariokwu, who illustrated the covers to many of Fela’s albums.
The Week in Music:
Thee Marloes – Di Malibu Hotel – One of my favourite performances at the Montreal Jazz Festival this year was put on by Thee Marloes, a retro soul group from Indonesia. They were incredibly entertaining, and the enthusiasm and joy that poured out of their vocalist and keyboard player, Natassya Sianturi, was infectious. Their music reminds me of a lot of other retro soul groups whose names also start with Thee (Thee Satisfaction, Thee Sacred Souls, etc.), but there’s a different quality to this band that is hard to explain. Maybe it’s because they write and sing in both English and Bahasa Indonesia, but there’s something very different about this group. I really hope I get to see them perform live again. Even without that, this album bangs from start to finish.
Metropolis Ensemble, Erik Hall, & Sandbox Percussion – Canto Ostinato – I listened to a live version of this on the KEXP podcast, and immediately knew that I wanted to hear, and own, the whole thing. For this rendition of composer Simeon Ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato, Erik Hall (piano) joined up with the Metropolis Ensemble (mostly violins with some wind instruments) and Sandbox Percussion (lots of mallet-played instruments), and the result is stupendous. This is a lovely piece of music, building on layer upon layer of repeated sections that shift, often slowly but sometimes quite suddenly. As a big fan of Phillip Glass’s music, I find this very appealing, and love how large it sounds.
Nils Petter Molvær – Be Quiet – I’m not all that familiar with Movær’s name or work, but this album caught my attention, and I love it. It’s a very meditative, exploratory album made in eight cities, each of which are the names of the piece (there are two from London). On each, he collaborates with someone from that city (the only names I’m familiar with are Alva Noto and Imogen Heap), marrying his trumpet to their instruments, which are mostly electronics or synthesizers (or a guzheng or a cello). None of these pieces do much to suggest their city of origin to my ear, but they provide constant shifts in approach and composition, which makes this very interesting, while still maintaining its restful and thoughtful purpose.
