Best Comic of the Week:
Saga #55 – I’d forgotten that Saga was returning this week, so this was a very nice surprise. I hadn’t realized how much I’ve missed this book in the years since it went on hiatus. During that time, a few years have passed. Hazel is older, Alanna has gone blonde, and the family has added a few members, namely Squire, who has been mute since his father’s death, and a guy named Bombazine, who works for Alanna, and is maybe dating her? We also get to check in on The Will, who has a new mission of sorts, and see Lying Cat again. This book’s weird balance of heartwarming and explicit has emerged from its hibernation intact, and it seems that Fiona Staples has leveled up, making her art even better than it was before. Saga is a terrific title, and I’m so glad to be getting regular doses of it again. This issue is oversized, but also still only $3, making it the best value on the stands. I have nothing but appreciation for Staples and writer Brian K. Vaughan, and feel like the wait for this book was more than worth it.
Quick Takes:
Action Comics #1039 – I’m really happy I chose to start getting this book, as it’s becoming one of my favourite DC titles. This issue sees Superman in bondage on Warworld, having to fight in the arena without any powers, and struggling to remain true to his values and figure out a way to improve life for the various races there. We learn a lot about Warworld in this issue, and I like how Phillip Kennedy Johnson still manages to find ways to check in with most of the surviving members of the Authority. Riccardo Federici drew this issue, and he gives it a very cool space barbarian vibe. I remain completely unimpressed with the Martian Manhunter backup story, however. It would be cooler if Johnson were given that backup space to give us short stories of the other characters on Warworld…
Aquaman/Green Arrow: Deep Target #4 – Ollie and Arthur try to escape their captors on the moon, only to find that their enemy’s plans run deeper than they expected. This series is nowhere near as good as the Aquaman: The Becoming mini running right now, also being written by Brandon Thomas, but this is still entertaining. I wish it wasn’t seven issues long though…
Black Hammer Reborn #8 – Much of this issue is taken up with more Colonel Weird weirdness, which is frankly a little tiring, but it does serve to advance the plot at the end. I am really enjoying Malachi Ward and Matthew Sheean’s art in this series lately, and the way they conceive of a number of multiversal Weirds, but I feel like whenever this series stays with this character too long, my attention wanders. I’m ready to get back to Lucy and Skulldigger next month.
Deadly Class #50 – As we move towards the end of this series, Rick Remender and Wes Craig are having the now-adult characters confront and resolve many of their issues. Marcus has been helping Saya detox and get back on her feet, and now it’s time for them to go after her brother. But what is Marcus really after here? It’s interesting to see how these characters have both grown and not changed at all from their teenage selves. I’ve been watching the TV show on Netflix this week, and I’ve really liked it, mostly for the way it’s made me nostalgic for the first couple of years of this comic, when it was unbeatable. I do love these characters, and know I’m going to miss them when this series ends.
Deathstroke Inc. #5 – Well, this issue was a surprise. It starts with some standard stuff, as Black Canary and Deathstroke have to make their way through Prometheus’s crooked house’s versions of the lives they wish they lived. After that, they finally learn the truth behind TRUST, and Slade makes a shocking move for power that finally makes this book’s title make sense. I don’t want to spoil anything, so it’s hard to discuss this issue, but I was thinking about how a revelation like this would have been way more effective had we gotten ten to fifteen issues of Slade and Dinah working together, with their suspicions about TRUST growing slowly over that time. Things have moved a little too quickly to be truly momentous, but that has as much to do with the state of the industry today as it does Joshua Williamson’s writing. This issue is guest drawn by Paolo Pantalena, and it looks like he chose to amplify the approach regular artist Howard Porter has taken, making this look very much like a big 90s comic. It’s nice to see something outside of the usual DC house style, but this doesn’t really work for me.
The Human Target #4 – An attempt to ask Ted Kord some questions leads to a day of random superheroing for Blue Beetle and Ice, while Chance inches closer to death and only slowly gathers more information about who it was that poisoned him. Tom King is taking his trademark structuralist approach to this series, and while I never expected it to be, at its heart, a JLI reunion, I am enjoying that aspect of it. I also like the way King is exploring Chance’s budding relationship with Ice. Greg Smallwood is doing incredible work with this series, and is as good a match for King’s writing style as Mitch Gerads. It’s good stuff.
Monster Kill Squad #3 – I’m enjoying this book about a small task force dedicated to managing the monsters that have been emerging around the world. In a lot of ways, this book feels like a throwback to the earliest days of Image Comics, where we would meet an established team of misfits as they go about facing their loosely explained antagonists, and we watch key scenes that lack emotional weight because of the newness of the characters. Christos Gage is laying some good groundwork here, but had this been a six or eight-issue mini, he could have taken more time in developing the characters before so we would care more about them. Tomas Giorello is very good at this type of comic, and I love his designs for the different monsters and demons in this issue. I was surprised by the backup story, because I’m pretty sure I’ve read it before. Matt Kindt and his collaborators have been introducing a new team (not all that dissimilar to the way the main story in this series has worked) over a number of Bad Idea titles, yet the next issue of Pyrate Queen is supposed to be the last that this publisher ever puts out. Of course, I’ve not believed any of their annoyingly-written press releases about the company “going away” – I figure they are going to announce they’re the first company to ever successfully ‘reboot.’ I just hope they don’t start calling themselves Good Idea…
Once & Future #24 – A new legend from the vaults of British folklore enters the mix this issue, and it makes me a little more enthusiastic than I’ve been lately for this series. I like this comic, but I often wish there was a little more going on. I think that’s partly because I know that some of the references are going over my head, having never really studied the Arthurian legends.
Pyrate Queen #4 – Peter Milligan and Adam Pollina bring this story to a satisfying ending, although one that upends my expectations in a few places. This series, about a pregnant female pirate who seeks revenge on the man who killed her husband, has been very entertaining and gorgeous. I would love to see Milligan and Pollina collaborate again on something soon. The backup, by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli, really caught my eye. It’s a short science fiction story about a child being given up as a sacrifice to alien sorcerers on a dying world, and it really left me wanting more. I love when these two work together (their take on the Unknown Soldier was a favourite, and their TKO book Goodnight Paradise blew me away), and I’m hoping that this is a prelude to something bigger and longer.
Robin #10 – I thought we were getting a time travel story now, but that’s not really the case. Instead, Damian finds himself in his great grandmother’s head and memories, and we learn the story of the League of Lazarus, the tournament, and about the relationship between Ra’s al Ghul and his mother. It’s another solid issue in a very good run, with great work by Joshua Williamson and Roger Cruz.
Teen Titans Academy #11 – The cover promises to ‘reveal’ Red X, but apparently that doesn’t extend to his actual identity. We do learn some more about the nature of his undercover work at the Academy, as Shazam moves to keep the adult Titans from having to kill Nevermore, just as the Apocalypse is about to burst out of him or something. I liked this issue, but it had way too many moving parts and artists to feel coherent. This title needs some work to restore the promise it showed at its start.
Thor #21 – Thor now knows that his fight with the God of Hammers has him actually facing his very own, personified. We learn just what it was that corrupted Mjolnir in this issue, and I do have to say that I like how Donny Cates is building on things from Jason Aaron’s time with Thor. There are maybe a few too many callbacks (is he going to lose his arm again?), but with Nic Klein on art, I do stay interested.
Two Moons #9 – Joshua Dysart is rushing us towards the end of this arc next issue, so we have the various groups of characters coming together, with some tragedy and supernatural bad stuff. I am impressed with this arc, but the pacing is starting to feel a little off. I love the way Valerio Giangiordano is drawing this comic – it looks so much richer than it did during its first arc.
Vampirella/Dracula: Unholy #2 – Ella and her new husband still need to consummate their marriage, which becomes complicated by the fact that Matt isn’t exactly into women. This book is a lot stranger than Priest’s Vampirella, but I am still enjoying the mechanics of him setting up this storyline, with the usual misdirections and confusing asides. I’m having a hard time with Donny Hadiwidjaja’s art, because there are just too many places where things feel kind of rough. I miss inkers in situations like this…
X Deaths of Wolverine #1 – I wasn’t sure what to expect from this series, the companion to the X Lives of Wolverine that launched last week, but I would not have guessed that it is the continuation to Inferno, as Moira MacTaggert is on the run from Mystique and cut off from any Krakoan support. We follow Moira on her journey, which takes her to a visit with Jane Foster (a character she’s had a lot in common with over the decades). At the same time, something strange is happening on Krakoa as Wolverine, the title character in this book, is on his weird Cerebro-aided time travel trip that’s depicted in the X Lives series. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I did X Lives, although I did often find Federico Vicentini’s art a little hard to follow, in a 90s kind of way (that’s happening a lot this week). I was feeling ready to give up on Ben Percy, but now I’m not so sure…
Comics I Would Have Bought if Comics Weren’t So Expensive:
Avengers Forever #2
Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace #1
Superman & Robin Special #1
The Week in Graphic Novels:
Friday Book One: The First Day of Christmas – I keep telling myself that I should do a better job of keeping up with the Panel Syndicate online comics, but I just don’t like reading them that way. I’m happier with this collection of Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin’s series, although I’d have been happier with more of the story collected. Friday is a young woman who returns to the small coastal town where she grew up, and she no longer feels completely at home. Through her teens, she worked with her friend, Lance, to solve mysteries, but things got complicated between them just before she left, and now that she’s back for Christmas, she doesn’t know where anything stands. Of course, Lance (who is modeled on the Encyclopedia Brown school of teen genius mystery solvers), is in the middle of a new case with supernatural overtones, and doesn’t really have time for her. Brubaker is good at any genre he attempts, so the characters are strong and quickly delineated. Martin is as much a genius as Lance is, so the book is gorgeous, especially with Muntsa Vicente’s colours. This volume ends on a cliffhanger that has me wanting more. I should download the newer chapters, but I know I’ll end up waiting for the printed version.
The Week in Music:
Tanya Tagaq – Tongues – I’ve long admired Tanya Tagaq as an artist and interview subject (she’s very funny and irreverent), but most of my interaction with her music to this point has come when she features on other artists’ work. With this album, though, I’m a fan. Tongues is a deeply disturbing and provocative album. Her songs are about the history of colonization in Canada (she’s Inuk, from Nunavut), Residential Schools, and motherhood. She takes some of the lyrics from her book, Split Tooth, and it’s clear that she’s done with trying to hide or soften any aspect of her personality for her audience. She uses throat singing to convey menace and rage, over industrial-tinged electronics. The music was produced by Saul Williams (one of the people I admire most in this world) and played on by Gonjasufi, and it’s just as challenging as the lyrics. It was William’s and Gonjasufi’s involvement that first caught my attention, and as much as the music fits in their oeuvre, there is no doubt that Tagaq is the star here. This album has caused me to lie awake at night thinking about it, and to watch all the official videos released so far, something I never do. Tagaq’s vision for this album is fascinating, and so necessary as this country can no longer hide from reckoning with the legacy of colonization, and the survivors of our centuries of racist policies demand reconciliation as the bare minimum of settler society’s responsibility. I admire Tagaq even more for making this, and while it is a hard listen, I’m finding so much beauty in it. Is it too early in the year to predict the next Polaris Prize winner? This is definitely an album that needs to be talked about, shared, and understood.
