New comics

The neverending battle to stay less than a month behind my new comics continues.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees 6

As I hopefully predicted, creator Patrick Horvath does a great job closing this miniseries out.  Sam executes her endgame flawlessly, and the joy of watching her competence far outweighs the lack of narrative tension.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for Horvath’s future work.

Transformers 8

My review is exactly the same as last month's.  It’s hanging on to my list by a thread, despite its well-done execution.

Birds of Prey 9

As much as I want to like this, it’s on even thinner ice than Transformers.  I love the characters and Kelly Thompson does a decent job w/ their personalities, but these stories are complete snooze fests.

Fantastic Four 20

Johnny and Ben get into an inane, meaningless competition over who’s the better grocery cashier, ending with a predictable “but beneath it all they love each other like family” denouement.  Not Ryan North’s best.  

Fine Print TPB 2

I had to re-read the first trade since I’d forgotten everything that happened previously.  No chore at all, Stjepan Sejic really deserves to be a bigger name in the industry.  He really is one of my favorite creators.  There’s more plot, more sex, and more characterization in this second volume.  Win win win.

Asgardians TPB 1

George O’Connor follows up his excellent Olympians series w/ the next best mythology out there.  And while it’s of the same quality as his original offering, the fact that it’s the next best mythology out there naturally limits its ceiling.  I’ll still be getting all of these.  

Zorro: Man of the Dead 4

This miniseries ends way earlier than I expected it to, but that’s not a bad thing; Sean Murphy got in, did his thing, did it well, and got out cleanly.  It’s better than Plot Holes, worse than Batman: White Knight, and looks great the whole time.  

Get Fury 1

Garth Ennis finally gets back to his “Frank Castle in Vietnam” epic, crossing over w/ the Nick Fury of My War Gone By.  It’s exactly what I want out of it.  I’ve missed Ennis.

Animal Pound 3

Tom King writes what amounts to a historical recitation of facts in the most engaging way possible.  I loved reading this, as the animals’ government succeeds as conceived.  But there’s always an underlying tension as you get the feeling that it could all fall apart at any moment; the peace between the different species is precariously balanced on a knife’s edge, and my expectation was that it would all go to shit once Titan or Fifi inevitably died.  Instead, the twist comes a lot earlier in an ominous, harrowing turn.  Can’t wait to see what happens next.