New comics

New comics!

Absolute Batman 23

Conspiracy Bruce Wayne who doesn’t trust his friends or family gets really old really quickly.  I hope he snaps out of it soon, because I’m not interested in reading about this Batman.  The Clayface/Batman/Robins sequence was pretty cool, but the nonstop grimness of this series is starting to wear on me.  

DIE: Loaded 8

Okay, I think I’m done.  I didn’t even read this, just skimmed it.

100 Bullets: US of Anger 2

Same with this.  Buying it out of force of habit, time to buckle down and break the cycle.  

Fantastic Four 15

Another wonderful time travelling story from Ryan North, and the tribute to FF artists past was a lovely touch for this 65th anniversary issue.  And truly, RIP to Johnny’s glorious moustache.

Battle Beast 12

Yesss.  More insane fight sequences from the immortal Ryan Ottley.  I’d like to see his R-rated take on some Marvel characters.  Maybe a Wolverine/Sabretooth fight.  With this brief cessation in hostilities, the title goes on hiatus until next March.

Daredevil 5

I can’t bring myself to drop three titles in a week.  And Lee Garbett gets at least the beginning of arc number 2 from me.  I hope Stephanie Phillips finds her footing and brings something better next month.  This story was maybe replacement level.  

Wonder Woman 36

The second half of this title’s version of The Contest.  It’s pretty good, but I’ll always wish for Miken Janin’s art.  Looking forward to Tom King’s return next month.

Batman 12

A number of assassins come to town.  Batman fights a couple of them and Verity Pennyworth (the new butler) proves her worth.  She’s not as cool as Alfred (I mean, who is?), but she shows promise.  She’s got a ways to go though.  

Supergirl: Survive 3

Every issue of this title zigs a different zag, and it’s frankly mind boggling that Ethan S Parker and Griffin Sheridan haven’t driven the whole thing off the road yet.  In fact, they’ve kept it super fun and engaging.  Kara does the “Hal Jordan creating a lost city with a power ring in Emerald Twilight” thing while Mr Mxyzptlk looks on.  (And it’s one of the few times he’s not infuriating.).  And the cliffhanger promises a fourth new direction in as many issues.  Can’t wait. 

New comics

New comics!

Fantastic Four 13

No Humberto Ramos, but Andrea Sorrentino proves to be surprisingly adept at drawing the funny.  He draws a hilarious out-of-his-depth Johnny Storm, whose hare-brained Ghost Rider goes wonderfully awry.  One of Ryan North’s better FF issues.  

Supergirl: Survive 2

I said last issue that this could go in any number of directions.  I didn’t expect either the Rainbow Lantern Corps or the Lobo Bunch to show up, but I wholeheartedly approve the decision by Ethan S Parker and Griffin Sheridan.  It’s lots of fun and makes for a colorful issue, and I totally didn’t see the totally obvious turn on the last page.  Once again, anything can happen in the next issue, and I’m looking forward to it.  

Absolute Martian Manhunter 12

At the end of it all, do I regret buying all twelve issues of this?  Only the reread will tell, but I suspect yes.  Even Javier Rodriguez’s art isn’t enough, as the shine’s finally come off of that apple.  And Deniz Camp’s story stopped being enjoyable or even coherent about six issues ago.  I’m glad that I don’t have to debate whether or not to buy this anymore.

Batman 11

Like Tom Taylor’s Detective, Matt Fraction’s Batman is just good, clean, superhero fun.  Love The Ojo’s visual design.  (By Jorge Jimenez?)

100 Bullets: The US of Anger 1

Didn’t expect to ever see more 100 Bullets, but the original team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso are back at it again.  I might be buying this just out of habit, but it’s still entertaining enough.

Ant-Man and the Wasp, Books of Magic, Beware the Creeper, Brother Lono

Ant-Man and the Wasp

So much fun.  I immediately wanted to watch it again.  A bunch of laugh out loud moments, a straightforward “Let’s bring mom home” goal, imaginative action scenes - this movie has it all.  The villains are (yet again) a little lackluster, but the heroes more than make up for it. Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, and Michael Pena up their game from the previous movie in all aspects.  And I love Michelle Pfeiffer as much as I did in the 80s. Which was a ton. More of her in future Marvel movies, please.

Batman Returns (1992)

Stardust (2007)

2018.  Will always love her.

Regret watching?  No

Would watch again?  Yes

Would buy on DVD?  Yes

Rating: Good

Brother Lono 1-8

Brian Azzarello reveals that Lono didn’t die at the end of 100 Bullets.  He found God and assists at an orphanage in Mexico, repressing his natural instinct and knack for violence.  When a DEA agent shows up and entangles herself with the local drug lords, Lono’s forced to revert to his former self.  

The miniseries reads a lot more clearly than its parent title, but there’s something missing from it.  100 Bullets was largely a creature of cities and modernity. In transplanting its sensibilities to the open spaces of Mexico, Azzarello retains the darkness but loses the noir, if that makes any sense.  It doesn’t help that Lono was one of the less interesting characters from 100 Bullets. It’s entertaining enough, but feels like a superfluous coda.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

Beware the Creeper 1-5

I love how my comic shop packages single issue runs of series and sells them at a massive discount.  That’s how I acquired this, based on the low price tag and Cliff Chiang’s name on the cover. I knew nothing else about this title.  On the reread, I remembered almost nothing about my first time through, only a vague recollection of the Creeper’s secret identity.

For some reason, I thought that this would be a candidate for cutting, but I was happy to find that not to be the case.  Jason Hall crafts a wonderful story that’s different from anything else I’ve ever read. Set in post-WWI Paris, twin sisters search for their individual identities amidst the rise of the Surrealist artistic movement and the emergence of the mysterious Creeper.  It’s paced very differently from most comics, without the traditional fight scenes or antagonists. This is one of those pleasant forgotten surprises that makes me happy to be going through my entire collection.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Books of Magic 1-4

I’m not really sure why I still hang on to this.  There’s not much to it - Four of DC’s occult characters take Tim Hunter on a journey through the worlds of magic.  It’s really a travelogue with some beautifully painted art. The words by Neil Gaiman are fine, but this is not some of his better work.  The final issue, in particular, is as bad I remember it, a jumbled, chaotic mess. Why am I keeping it? Nostalgia? It’s not good enough to even deserve a Major Feels rating, but it’s sticking around.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Didn’t Suck

100 Bullets

Another business trip meant I had plenty of time to read.

100 Bullets 59-100

I should have continued to build up the 100 Bullets spreadsheet from my previous readthrough this time around.  I needed to keep track of the various alliances and side switching, because it happens at a dizzying rate in the back half of the series.  The Minutemen float between three distinct groups, beating each other up with motivations that feel murky at best. I’ll give it a go here, maybe it’ll help me understand things better in the attempt.

By the way, whoever DC got to print these trades sucks.  The cover fell off of one of them. Weak glue/poor construction.  

Strychinine Lives: Loop and Lono start out together, somehow no longer incarcerated.  They find Victor Ray in Chicago. Their goal appears to be helping Graves restore the Trust, but with one head instead of thirteen.  

Cole finds Branch and inquires about the painting that everyone’s looking for (I never figured out why).  Coles sends Branch off to find Echo and the painting, but Branch abandons the task when he sees Dizzy.

Graves antagonizes Jack, who’s still unactivated.  

At Lono’s instruction, Vic shoots Megan Dietrich, but intentionally doesn’t kill her.

Wylie’s with Dizzy in the aftermath of Shepherd’s death.  Benitio and Branch find them.

Decayed: Lono activates Jack, and their group grows to four.  

Graves activates Remi, the final Minuteman.  Remi joins Graves and Cole.

Once Upon a Crime:  Hmm. I’ve been ignoring the goings on of the Trust.  My mistake. I'll start keeping track now. Cole and Remi kill Simone of the Trust.  Graves wants Dizzy to join him, but Wylie’s keeping that from happening. In retaliation, Graves sets Lono’s group on Wylie.  It appears that Vic is working for Graves without Lono’s knowledge.

Wylie goes to confront Graves, but Remi kills him.  Vic ditches Lono/Loop/Jack and kidnaps Branch and Dizzy.  He brings them to Graves/Cole/Remi. Dizzy joins Graves. Ronnie finds the painting and Echo.  

Dirty: Graves’ team kills Sigmar Rhone of the Trust, then two more members.  D’Arcy of the Trust hires Slaughter (Vic’s father) to kill the supplier of Graves’ attaches.  

Cole takes Branch to find Ronnie.  While Cole gets the painting from Ronnie, Echo kills Branch.

Wilt: Cole ditches Graves.  Why? Because he has the painting?  Because Wylie or Branch got killed? I’m not sure.  He hooks up with Jack and Loop. When Lono finds out, he orders Loop to kill Cole.  He fails, but Cole forgives him. Jack ditches Cole and Loop.

Remi loses both his hands in a failed hit on D’Arcy.  He commits suicide.

Lono kidnaps Dizzy when they encounter each other at a meeting between Graves and Augustus.  He delivers her to Benito, not realizing their emotional connection. Benito shoots Lono, who escapes.

Cole and Loop are out to kill Lono.  Jack (somehow) gets the painting and hooks up with Echo.  Cole coincidentally finds them and kills Echo as payback for Branch.  Jack rejoins Cole and Loop. Vic finds the three of them. They dump Echo and the painting in the swamp.  (WTF was the point of the painting??)

Slaughter kills Vasco of the Trust.  What’s left of the Trust makes peace.  They make Graves a head of house. Graves appoints Dizzy the new head of the Minutemen.  Augustus names Benito as his successor. So now Graves, Benito, D’Arcy, Tibo Vermeer, and Megan are the five houses, but Benito is soon killed by Megan, D’Arcy, and Vermeer.

Last issue: Cole, Loop, Jack, and Vic attack the Trust compound.  To kill everyone, I think. Lono does the same on his own. Jack fights Crete (Augustus’ bodyguard who had turned down an offer to become a Minuteman) and they both get eaten by alligators (WTF).  Loop, Vic, and Slaughter drive away after getting tired of killing bodyguards. Vermeer’s assassinated, I’m not sure by whom. Dizzy takes out Lono before he can kill Graves. Cole kills D’Arcy and Megan, but screws up and dies himself in the explosion.  Dizzy is hurt (paralyzed?) in the blast. Graves kills Augustus. Dizzy kills Graves for working against the Trust.

And we’re done.  Even after that recap, all I can tell is that everyone wanted to kill everyone else.  After all of that, the body count includes: All thirteen house heads, Benito, Graves, Shepherd, Branch, and four of the original seven Minutemen.  Loop, Vic, Lono, and maybe Dizzy make it out. Four survivors. I didn’t even get into any of the side stories that Azzarello liberally sprinkles in with the main threads.  They’re often better (and less confusing).

Was it worth the journey?  I think so. By the end, I stopped paying attention the plot and let the the mood sweep me along, like The Big Sleep.

Couldn't tell you the plot.  But I remember how awesome Bogart and Bacall were.

And Dorothy Malone as the librarian.  Nobody forgets her.

I’m sure I’ll be reading this again in the future.  Maybe it’ll make more sense one day.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

100 Bullets

100 Bullets 31-58

Covering the next 4 trades worth of stories.  

The Counterfifth Detective: I have no idea what was going here.  Azzarello jumps from Byzantine to downright confusing as fuck. It’s all very noir, and there’s some mystery about a stolen painting and a lot of double crossing.  But damned if I could make heads or tails of any of it. At the end of it all, Milo, one of Graves’ Minutemen, refuses to remember his past and commits suicide by Lono, who doesn’t realize he’s killing one of his comrades.  A major misfire in a generally strong series.

Six Feet Under the Gun: My favorite part of this trade is the covers, with distinctive fonts for each issue’s focal character.  Dave Johnson is as important to this title as Dave McKean is to Sandman. A consistent cover artist does so much to set the mood and tone for a comic.  

Samurai: This covers Loop and Lono’s time in jail, followed by the continued adventures of Jack.  Neither interested me very much. I’m more drawn to the clinical gunfighters than the big mean bruisers.  

I like the guys in the front more than the ones in the back.

The Hard Way: We get our first introduction to Victor the Minuteman.  Then Wylie takes centerstage as he’s reactivated and joins Dizzy and Shepherd (I’ve seen it spelled both ways).  At the end of the trade, Dizzy kills Shepherd when it turns out she’s coded to “Croatoa” as well.

The tragedy hits hard and effectively in this trade.  Wylie remembers that in his former life as a Minuteman, Shepherd had sent him to kill his lover for plotting against the Trust.  It hits every film noir trope, and Risso elevates it beyond cliche.

Even more tragic is the tale of Martin, the deformed trumpet player.  When a bear trap gruesomely robs him of his transcendental musical talent, his silent plea for death is achingly painful.  

  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Counterfifth: Boring; Six Feet and Hard Way: Nice; Samurai: Fine

100 Bullets, Man of Steel, Usagi Yojimbo, Astro City

New comics!

Astro City 52

This whole follow up to Astro City ½ has been a complete misfire.  Kurt Busiek extends what was a magical, bittersweet tale into the story of a man who’s settled into a mundane routine.  Michael Tenicek does his admirable best to contribute to his community, but ultimately can’t move on from his loss. It’s a more realistic outcome, but ruins the hopeful note the original story ended on.  

In the final analysis, I loved the romance of Astro CIty ½, and there was none of that here.  

Man of Steel 5

Rogal Zaar.  Did I get it right?  Nope. It’s Rogol Zaar.  Brian Michael Bendis has one more week to make that name sink in.  I’m expecting a generic fight scene, but give Adam Hughes for setting it up beautifully.

Usagi Yojimbo 32

I don’t know that I’ll ever have much to say about Usagi Yojimbo.  I know that it’s not easy to make it look this easy, and that Stan Sakai is a master of it.  Usagi will never blow me away, but it will always entertain, and that’s all I want out of it.

100 Bullets 1-30

So I’m starting with Vertigo Box 1 before closing out Marvel Box 8.  I have the last two Spider-Woman trades all ready to read, but I got started on 100 Bullets a couple of days ago, and I’m on a roll with it.  

I was honestly a little leery of reading this thing all the way through.  100 issues of a Byzantine plot, massive cast of characters, and just as many motivations.  The last time I read this, I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of everything that was going on.  Diving into 100 Bullets is a major commitment, is all I’m saying.

It starts out with such a simple, elegant concept: If you had proof that someone had horribly wronged you, 100 bullets and a gun to make things right, and a guarantee that there would be no legal repercussions, what would you do?  That idea alone would be enough to sustain a series for a good long time; the stories that actually involve the eponymous ammunition are completely engaging and well written. But Azzarello ties it all in with the complex machinations of the Trust (the original American Illuminati) and their erstwhile enforcers, the Minutemen.

So what happens in the first 30 issues?  Dizzy gets the briefcase, and Shepard subsequently recruits her.  Graves sics someone on Megan Dietrich, revealing that he’s still alive.  We’re introduced to Lono, one of Graves’ Minutemen. Graves actives Cole, the second of his Minutemen, with a post-hypnotic code word.  We meet Mr. Branch, a reporter who dug too deeply into the background of the briefcases and now knows too much. Loop Hughes enters the picture, the son of a rejected Minuteman.  The Trust meets to discuss the threat of the reemergence of Graves, and Graves makes his first move by assassination one of his former employers. Shepard unsuccessfully tries to activate Wylie.  

The connection between Shepard and Graves is the most confusing to me.  I know that Shepard used to be a Minuteman, before the Trust promoted him to some higher position.  He was also the one tasked with eliminating his former team after Graves refused an order from the Trust.

His agenda right now is unclear.  He seems to be interfering with Graves’ plans - recruiting Dizzy, trying to do the same with Wylie - but he’s not doing as much as he could if his main objective was to take Graves down.  I’m also uncertain as to how much Graves knows about Shepard’s machinations. And this is after reading it for the third time. Still, I’m enjoying it immensely. I’ve gone through 4 trades in 4 days, and I ready for more.  I haven’t even gone into detail about any of the stories, and there are some real stars.

Some incidental comments about Risso art:

His style is unique and amazing, but he really looks like John McCrea here:

McCrea here.  It's the teeth and the extensive shadows on the face.

His women possess a confident, effortless sexiness, as if they can’t help but flaunt such an uncontainable thing.  Lilly, for example, is presumably the same age as her clearly not young husband, but she could easily pass for someone in her twenties in these panels.

Not a wrinkle on her body.

But then Risso does some small things that show her age, which I liked.

Crinkled hands and elbows, arms hairs all add years to her appearance here.

That issue, 11, is spectacular.  Graves’ recounting of Lilly’s daughter’s fate left me as spellbound as Lilly herself.  Azzarello’s facility with words here is simply astounding. Risso’s reaction shots, which would be over the top in most places, are perfectly suited here.

A crushing coda to a horrific story.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice and Pretty Good at various points.  11 was Really Good.