Skyward, Pearl, Magic Order, Mage

New comics!

Mage: The Hero Denied 11

Things have slowed down to a crawl.  Magda and Hugo spend a lot of pages going up a red tube.  Kevin and his daughter drive from point A to point B. The big bad kills one of her daughters to sustain her own life force.  It’s reached the point where even Matt Wagner’s art isn’t enough to keep me interested, but with only 4 issues to go, I feel like I’m pot committed at this point.  On the other hand, would future me, having read up to this point, really want to know how this thing ends? I’m not sure if he’d really care. Something to think about when the next issue comes out.  

Skyward 5

Five issues in, and I’m still having fun with both the world-building and the story.  I’m surprised Joe Henderson killed the dad off so soon, but it was done well enough. The covers continue to stun.  Small characters against expansive backgrounds really do it for me, I suppose.

Pearl 1

I will give anything by Bendis a shot, so here I go with Pearl, his latest from the Jinxworld line.  He throws the reader into the action and expects them to figure it out as the action goes along. Surprisingly enough, it’s the Michael Gaydos art that stumbles here.  The storytelling for the drive by shooting wasn’t the clearest, and muddles up what appears to be the inciting event of the entire series.

Still, I’m intrigued enough to stick around for at least a couple more issues.

Magic Order 3

I’m really enjoying this series, but I’m not sure why this Mark Millar offering is so much stronger than his last few.  Certainly the Olivier Coipel art is a plus. Is it the extended sequences? There are four scenes in this issue, and Millar doesn’t cut between them.  Each is given his undivided attention, allowing them time to develop and breathe without interruption. And all the scenes hit home, from the innocence of a child playing with a dangerous weapon to the horrific damage that a trained wizard can do with such an instrument.  Very well done.

Lucifer

Lucifer 63-75, Lucifer: Nirvana

The final battle.  The Lilim launch their assault on the Silver City, but before they can complete their victory, Christopher Rudd and his army of Hell denizens swoop in and take command of the field.  Lilith dies in the fight. Lucifer kills Fenris. Yahweh grants Elaine Belloc the power of God. She takes her creation and merges it with those of Lucifer and God, claiming sovereignty over all.  Before she leaves behind her humanity forever, she gives all of her friends happy endings. Lucifer transfers the mantle of Morningstar to Mazikeen. She transfers a scar across his face for leaving her.  After one final conversation with his father, Lucifer flies off into the void.

It’s not bad, but the fact that I remembered none of it from my previous readings (I believe this was my third time through) speaks to the...meh-ness of it all.  Mike Carey sacrificed his characters on the altar of Plot. Even Lucifer, such a compelling personality at the beginning of this title, ended up feeling like nothing more than an observer in his own story.  I can’t put my finger on it. His role in Lucifer is not that far off from Morpheus’ in Sandman - often that of supporting character in his own title.  I think it’s that at the end of the day, Morpheus is still clearly the core around which all the other stories revolve.  Everything still comes back to him at the end of the day. Carey could just as plausibly called this comic Belloc and not needed to change a word of the script.  

I’m retroactively going back and classifying all my “Would buy agains” to No.  While I’d read it again if given the chance, I wouldn’t feel the need to repurchase it if I lost it in a fire.  Perhaps that’s how I should approach that category in the future...

Lucifer: Nirvana serves as a coda, taking place somewhere in the middle of series.  The story’s fine, but the real star is clearly Jon Muth’s gorgeous art.  

What really blows me away are these two pages:

The juxtaposition between the beautiful, luminescent angel and the bloody filth of her company and her environment is quite arresting.  What is it that compels her to such a congress? Muth’s depiction of her purity makes her willing defilement at the hands of the Silk Man all the more haunting.  

As I wrap up Lucifer, some final images that spoke to me.

Mazikeen is so badass.

Gorgeous splash page.

Now we all know the gesture for nubile.

Gotta give Gaudium and Spera props, they’re pretty funny.

Heh, one last dig at Remiel.  Self-important to the end.

Mike Kaluta had some nice covers, but it’s hard not to think of him as a Charles Vess clone.  (Though to show how much I know, Vess lists Kaluta as one of his major influences.)

Kaluta.

Kaluta

Vess.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Lucifer

Lucifer 56-61

If Lucifer was an arc of Dragonball Z, this would be the part where Goku and Piccolo stare at each other for 30 minutes and charge up their chi as rocks float around them.  A ton of set up for the upcoming final battle, but nothing really interesting happens in the meantime: Lilith usurps command of the Lilim from Mazikeen. Elaine Belloc learns to control the godly powers passed along from her father, the Archangel Michael.  Jill Presto, realizing that she’s got another Basanos child in her womb, tries to kill it before it can be born. (She doesn’t succeed.)

It’s all pretty skippable, but at least Mike Carey does a nice job of building up the anticipation for the second War in Heaven.  I don’t really care about the outcome, but I am curious to see how it all turns out. Is everyone but Lucifer going to die? It’s entirely possible.  

This isn’t the first story I’ve read where God’s abandoned Heaven.  He memorably deserts His throne in Preacher by Garth Ennis, but with different consequences.  In Preacher, nothing really changes, even after the Saint kills Him.  That God doesn’t really have much effect on His universe unless He actively chooses to, so His Death (along with all of the angels in Heaven), leaves the universe no worse off.  

In Lucifer, God’s departure will eventually lead to the unraveling of His creation.  So higher stakes. Of course, there are already two other creations existing parallel to His, so, it wouldn’t be the end of everything if this one poofs.  This God has also been unseen up to this point.  He’s been defined entirely by his absence. His motivations are completely invisible, leaving everyone else to scramble in response.

Carey also returns to Karl and Jayesh from the first issue of the title, the burgeoning neo-Nazi and the man who loved him.  Jayesh is recovering from the brutal beating he received at the hands of the Nazis Karl sicced on him. Jayesh is also dating Karl now, who’s living with the guilt of his previous actions.  (In addition to instigating the attack, he also sodomized his now-boyfriend with a broken bottle.) To top it all off, it’s suggested at the end of the issue that deep down, Jayesh knows everything.  Which would add another level of trauma to this already-stacked layer cake of messed up. If nothing else, this issue stuck in my mind for longer than most.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine (Nice for 61)

Lucifer, Mighty Avengers, Honor Girl

Honor Girl

A coming-of-age memoir by Maggie Thrash.  A fifteen year-old girl realizes she’s gay at summer camp.  I love a good teenage relationship story, the kind with angst, romance, and the intensity of new love.  This one’s pretty good, complete with the bittersweet ending that comes with most real-life first loves.  (Blankets is the one that comes to mind as the pinnacle of the genre.)  The art isn’t all that much, but then I discovered that this was the first time Thrash had drawn a comic.  My impressed meter shot way up at that point.

For all its unpolished simplicity, it clearly tells the story and the strength of the emotions still comes through.  

I read this at the bookstore, so slightly different categories.

Would buy? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Mighty Avengers 1-20

Brian Michael Bendis spends the first eleven issues chronicling Tony Stark’s attempt at running a post-Civil War Avengers team.  It’s strictly middle of the road Bendis. This team never really gels, and their fights against Mole Man, Ultron, and Doctor Doom aren’t that interesting.  Frank Cho does fine with the first arc, but Mark Bagley struggles with the second. He’s a great artist when he’s on Spider-Man, but I’m hard pressed to come up with another title that he shines on.    

It's just...not awe-inspiring.

The one thing that stands out in these issues is Bendis’ liberal use of thought balloons.  He so rarely partakes in the practice (I think there was an actual Marvel edict forbidding their use for a while) that their frequent appearances here stand out.  He thankfully spares us the interminable inner monologues of the 80s. Instead, they provide instant snapshots into the minds of the Avengers, what they’re thinking at precise moments.  The balloons reveal the insecurities and pettiness in these characters, to an extent that we rarely see nowadays.

The last nine issues of the trade provide a ton of background on Secret Invasion – How and when certain Skrulls infiltrated Earth, Nick Fury’s gathering of his Secret Warriors, etc.  The strongest issues correspond with the strongest artists – Alex Maleev kicks ass (12 and 13) and Stefano Caselli (18) gets warmed up for his run on Secret Warriors.

Lovely to look at.  No need for Bendis words.

Overall, this run of Mighty Avengers is pretty skippable.  Maleev and Caselli’s issues are good, but they could just as easily have been the first three issues of Secret Warriors.  

Ares would get along with Doom.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No (Yes for 12, 13, and 18)

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine (Nice for 12, 13, and 18)

Lucifer 42-55    
I’m going to spout out random thoughts, and see how far it takes me.

Issue 42 has some of the laziest word balloon placement I’ve ever seen.  Jared Fletcher and Comicraft complete botch the balloon pointers on a number of panels.  

Okay.  Garamas is the big one.  Gyges is the little one.

Both balloons are pointing at the wrong demons.

Both should be pointing at Garamas.

The balloons in the first panel are pointing to the wrong people.

A lot of Marc Hempel influences in this hand.  (And the coloring by Daniel Vozzo really sells the sequence.)

Peter Gross pencils.

Hempel.

More reinforcement of the inevitability of this title, the feeling that the plot controls all, and the characters are just going with the flow.  I know it’s not a hidden theme or anything, Mike Carey is pretty blatant about it. But there’s something about Carey’s writing style that makes this whole endeavor so cold and clinical.  I still don’t care about any of these characters.

Lucifer looks great in that black trenchcoat.  

I like this cover a lot, but there’s something Lolitaesque about it that also makes me deeply uncomfortable.  

P. Craig Russell draws issue 50, just like he did for Sandman.  He had practice drawing all of those angels when he did Murder Mysteries two years previously with Neil Gaiman.

From Sandman 50

`

Murder Mysteries

Lucifer 50

P. Craig Russell is so good at picking projects that play to his strengths.  They all showcase his ability to draw the fantastical.

Contrast that with Ted Naifeh on issue 45.  His excellent work on Courtney Crumrin would suggest an affinity for the world of Lucifer, but most of the script calls for regular people, and his style doesn’t suit it so well.

Eh.  Not a good use of his talents.

That's more like it.

The remainder of these issues are about Fenris and his plot to blah blah end of the world blah blah Yggdrasil the World Tree blah blah.  I think this is where it’s starting to wear thin. I didn’t care about the characters before, and now I’m not caring about the story, either.  It’s not looking good for the rest of this run.

Then, when the title needed it most, Marc Hempel comes in and saves the day in issue 55 with his looks-like-no-one-else style.  That first shot of Remiel immediately catapulted me back to Sandman’s Kindly Ones, not a bad place to be.  Subsequent panels of the Angel of Persecution Complexes just get better and better as his life gets worse and worse.  And Hempel pulls it off like no one else.

He looks constipated in all of these.  Which is actually perfect for Remiel.

A nice, serious moment after all the humiliation he's been through.  I like the curve of the wings.

I suspect this one issue breath of fresh air won’t extend into the next arc, but It was most welcome here.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Starts at Fine, ramping down to Didn’t Suck by the end.  (Pretty good for 55, Nice for 50)

Mister Miracle, World of Tanks, Strangers in Paradise, Catwoman, Superman

New comics!

Strangers in Paradise XXV 5

Blech.  Terry Moore gets into the conspiracy/plot part of the comic, and I find myself not caring a bit about it.  I think it has something to do with Echo, one of his other comics.  (Shared universe and what not.)  Tambi sets up an ancient piece of papyrus covered with Cleopatra’s mathematical scrawlings as what I presume will be the MacGuffin for the rest of the run.  Blah blah fishcakes. Katchoo continues to ignore Francine, and it continues to infuriate me.

World of Tanks: Citadel 4

Really not Garth Ennis’ strong stuff.  It’s not as bad as his horrible work (all the latest Section Eight comics), but it’s completely forgettable.  Do I even buy the last issue? (Assuming there’s only one more.)

Catwoman 2

The Joelle Jones art continues to shine, but her writing isn’t grabbing my attention.  I really like the parts where she hints at her state of mind post-Bruce-engagement, but there aren’t enough of them.  Though...looking back at the issue, there’s actually a decent amount of inner-monologuing about this. Must be that I want even more.  

“My bed won’t feel so empty if my body is too tired to recognize it.  Perhaps it won’t notice that I’m sleeping alone again. I can fight this static buzzing in my brain and hope that the repeating melody of his name will disappear from my mind.”

When you just can't sleep...

Some nice imagery there.  Yeah, taking back what I said about the writing, it’s the plotting that’s not doing it for me.  Mrs. Creel is a visually arresting villain, but I’m not caring about her schemes right now.

Don't think I've ever seen this composition in a splash before.  Love it.

Superman 2

Nooooo, not more Rogol Zaar!!!  When did Barry Allen start acting like Impulse?  Was anyone clamoring for a Nuclear Man cameo? This is such a useless, filler issue, and things are worryingly starting to feel a lot more like Invincible Iron Man Bendis than Ultimate Spider-Man Bendis.  

At least I got the David Mack cover,

Mister Miracle 10

This issue saves the whole week.  Tom King’s mixture of the mundane with the fantastic always creates the tastiest of cocktails, and Mitch Gerads’ mastery of the nine-panel grid results in the most beautiful bits of storytelling.  Congratulations to both of them for their well-deserved Eisners at this year’s SDCC.

This shower breakdown is exquisite in its body language.

The absent-minded hair-stroking!

Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Harry Potter: The Cursed Child, Xerxes

Xerxes 5

Sigh.  I keep hoping and hoping with Frank Miller, and he’s provided nothing but one disappointment after another.  What was his last really enjoyable series? Sin City?  Xerxes started out promisingly enough, but it been on a steady downward trajectory ever since.  By this final issue, Miller’s drawing images seemingly selected at random from the rudimentary plot he’s laid out in his head.  Future me really needs to remember to stop buying his stuff on sight.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

At some point in the future, readers will wonder what I’m talking about when refer to Moviepass.  In any case, this was the first movie in the last 8 months that I’ve had to pay money for; My Moviepass plan had covered everything in the interim.  But the last two weeks was when the unsustainably wonderful deal – $90 for a year’s worth of free movies in the theaters – collapsed under the actually-too-good-to-be-true weight of its own financial insanity.  The biggest releases of each week will no longer be available. Instead of one movie per day, customers are limited to three per month. And this movie was the first casualty.

No matter.  This was not one of those “eh, I’ll watch it because it’s free” films.  I was watching this regardless. This entire franchise is ridiculously entertaining, even more than, I daresay, the Fast and Furious movies.  (And I love me some family.)

The sixth installment was quite fun, but it didn’t match Rogue Nation, which is my favorite one.  (Though I hadn’t realized how difficult it was to rank them until I went through the exercise.  They’re all so rewatchable, even the much-maligned second John Woo piece.)

Rankings sidebar:

1) 5 - Rogue Nation

2) 3 – Ghost Protocol

3) 1

4) 6 - Fallout

5) 3

6) 2

Fourth place is perfectly respectable for Fallout.  It’s got amazing set pieces – The HALO sequence, the bathroom fight scene, and yet another breathtaking motorcycle chase (Which matches the exhilaration of Rogue Nation’s, which I didn’t think was possible).  Rebecca Ferguson, the best part of the previous film, returns as Ilsa.  I like the resolution of Michelle Monaghan’s arc. Tom Cruise runs!

On the other side of the ledger, the movie felt long on this first viewing, which is a first in the series.  The helicopter duel was amusing from a Top Gun flashback standpoint, but otherwise left me cold. There was far too little of Ilsa kicking ass, and I could have done without her burgeoning romance with Ethan Hunt.  Henry Cavill was fine but uninspired as a character. Alec Baldwin leaves the show just as he was getting into the fun of it all.

I’m still going to buy it.  I’m still going to watch it over and over a ton.

Regret watching? No

Would watch again? Yes

Would buy on DVD? Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Harry Potter: The Cursed Child

Shout out to my friend for getting me house seats for a Sunday showing.  And an even bigger shout out to her work on the lighting team of this Best Light Design Tony award-winning production.  As far as I’m concerned, my dear friend also won the Tony.

I had a lot of doubts about the story for this show.  I read the synopsis when it first came out. I was disappointed by the stupidity of Harry Potter and his son, Albus Severus.    

That part of it was completely borne out – Harry makes some very questionable decisions, and there’s no question about the idiocy of the things Albus does.  But everything else about the production more than balances it out. What can I say without giving things away?

• All-around great performances by the majority of the cast.  Particular kudos to [Draco actor], [Scorpius Actor], and [Harry actor] for nailing some of the most heartachingly monologues.  The Malfoys were also surprisingly hilarious. Honorable mentions to [Myrtle actor] and [Ron actor] for their comedic talents.
• The magic effects were great.  Can’t say more.
• The music by Imogen Heap and the accompanying choreographed movement.
• The gasps and applause of recognition from the audience whenever a beloved (or reviled) character from the books was referenced.
• The staircases.
• The masterful lighting.  So much of the mood, tricks, and scenes could not have been accomplished without it.
• The efficient scene changes and the wooshes that went along with them.

To quote Ferris Bueller, “if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

Regret watching? No

Would watch again? Yes

Would buy on DVD?  N/A, but now waiting for the inevitable movie version once Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson hit their forties.

Rating: Pure Joy