Infidel, Heroes in Crisis, Mage

Infidel 1-5

I picked this off the shelf at the library.  The cover proclaimed that NPR selected it as one of their 100 favorite horror stories of all time, so I thought, “Why not give it a try?”  I’m not usually a horror fan, but I’m okay with it in comic book form. (As Jeff Lemire notes in the afterword, sound and jump scares don’t fit in the comic equation.  Since those are the biggest two contributors to why horror movies are so effective against me (and why I hate watching them), their absence keeps this from my “avoid at all costs” list.)

A spirit feeds on the xenophobic feelings of an apartment building’s residents, leading to violence, death, and explosions.  It’s well executed by Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell - The mood is sufficiently creepy, the monsters are scary, and the deaths are gruesome.  But I contend that it would have been even scarier if they had muted the presence of the creatures. Pichetshote does such a good job of conveying the barely hidden fear and hatred of the neighbors’ racism, which is terrifying enough.  Amplifying that, and keeping the ugliness internalized (where all these feelings are festering), would have ratcheted up the tension and made the ensuing mayhem all the more intense.

That said, there’s no way I’d watch a movie version of this.  It would scare the shit out of me.

Regret borrowing: No

Would buy: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine

Some of this week’s new comics:

Mage: The Hero Denied 15

I wish I hadn’t bought this series.  Even without rereading them, I also regret buying the previous two Mage series.  Not that they suck, but I’ve never had the urge to re-read either them or this most recent run.  They’re the definition of a good library borrow. I’m far more inclined to read Grendel if I want a great Matt Wagner yarn.  

Anyway, Wagner wraps up his Kevin Matchstick saga with a neat little bow.  The good guys live happily ever after, but the journey wasn’t interesting enough to justify the trip.  I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this when I get to the full review, but that’s a ways off in the future.

Heroes in Crisis 6

A complete filler of an issue.  (Tom King had mentioned that two of the issues in this nine-parter were initially intended to be crossover issues.  This may be one of those, especially since Mitch Gerads did most of the art.) In flashback, King gives us some insight into the psyches of Gnarrk, Wally West, and Harley Quinn right before all the death.  I like it, despite the superfluous nature of it all.

Gnarrk (whom I did not know about before this), has the Steve Rogers frozen-in-ice origin, only he’s an actual caveman.  That’s the reason for his primitive speech patterns, though that apparently doesn’t prevent him from smoothly quoting huge blocks of Keats’ poetry.  The juxtaposition is amusing, as are Gnarrk’s deep thoughts as he contemplates the works of Plato and his place in this new, modern work.

I also like Harley’s interactions with Ivy.  Ivy’s attempts to provide therapy for Harley involve repeated holodeck simulations of killing the Joker in creative ways.  Works for me, as does their romantic little moment sitting atop the pile of Joker carcasses.

Adorbs.

Also, it appears more and more like Booster Gold’s the killer.  I hope it’s true, because a heel turn means that he’ll get beat up a lot more by the good guys.  Hate the guy.