(No stickers, please.)
Here’s where we can discuss the new books that come out each Wednesday.
The Ongoing New Comics Thread
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Yes. His Detective Comics run was phenomenal, Dave. But, it’s far more a Batman family book than a solo Batman run. In fact, I’d go so far as to say Bruce was pretty much a supporting character in this book. Red Robin (Tim Drake), Batwoman, and Spoiler had the lion’s share of the spotlight.
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The first TPB is actually a great taster for the rest of the run. If you enjoy that, the rest of the run is definitely more of the same.
Alternatively, his Batman run is pretty solid too. The first arc was a little disjointed, but “Joker War” has been excellent – although it builds on what came before, so you should start with the first book really (or #86 in singles).
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The ‘Designer’ arc starting in B86 fell kinda flat to me at first and I felt somehow cheated when it became obvious that it was as setup for Joker War more than its own thing
I read some recent comments from Tynion on his blog about this that I found interesting. It suggests that he wrote his early stint on the book in quite a seat-of-his-pants way.
I’m just going to confirm something that is basically common knowledge at this point.
There’s another universe where Batman #100 was going to be my last issue on Batman. Ask me in another 5-10 years and I’ll tell you what my original plans were, and the key moments through the year when I basically needed to throw out my roadmap because very major top-down story priorities shifted.
Weirdly, the shifting priorities helped me find the spirit of the book. There were entire issues I was writing, out of order because of the necessities of double-ship, not knowing the ending of the story I was telling. I had to throw out my bag of tricks, and focus on making every single individual issue an absolute BLAST to read. Focus on delivering a series of big cool moments, and exciting character combos, to make sure that there was something in each issue that made that issue worth reading. I knew there were big elements that I couldn’t control, so I latched onto what I COULD control.
The upside of that meant that when something worked, I could pivot into it faster than I’ve ever been able to before. PUNCHLINE’s success showed me the hunger for key new characters in the Gotham mythos, and the fact that Joker War’s ending was up in the air meant that I could rework some of the key elements to fast-track the introduction of CLOWNHUNTER. And when the book became a sales Juggernaut and I was given the official news that I would be staying on the title indefinitely, I was able to reshape Joker War into the engine through which I could create a new, exciting status quo for Batman for 2021 and beyond… You can see that in what we set up last week in Joker War Zone, and what we set up this week in Batman 100. There is a whole big city in play, and we have longform plans that we are going to make the most out of… One key element in that is that I can say that Barbara Gordon is going to be an absolutely central character for the rest of this year, and next year. If you’ve been missing Oracle in the Bat-verse like I have, I think you’re going to be very excited where things go from here… And then there’s GHOST-MAKER, who debuts in a one-page coda this week. Everything we’re doing here, especially now to the end of the year, is in service of setting up 2021 to be your new favorite era of Gotham City.
I’m INSANELY excited about next year.
This time, I’m working off a 22 page story bible that got approved by the big bosses last month. That bible took everything I learned flying by the seat of my pants in 2020 and apply it deliberately to a HUGE story that will take us to every weird corner of Gotham City in 2021. Jorge Jimenez has taken everything he’s learned on Joker War and taken it to the next level in this work. I have a tab open on my computer with a video he sent me back in June to help define the mood he wants to capture in our story next year.
The plan has a whole host of new characters, and there are two of them in particular I think the fandom are going to lose their minds over. Jorge’s initial designs has me in love with them already…
That plan involves key stories for Punchline, Clownhunter, and Ghost-Maker. You’ll see the seeds planted for all of that in this week’s Batman #100. The Punchline coda of 100 sets up one of the key elements I’ve just been dying to get to with the character of Punchline. She is about to go on trial, and that trial is going to let her manipulate the whole city into loving her, while she builds a dangerous plan that will run through the back-burner of 2021. The Coda leads us directly into the Punchline one-shot co-written by Sam Johns, and drawn by the incredible Mirka Andolfo. And that one-shot leads us directly into… Something I can’t talk about just yet.
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Interesting reading, thanks Dr D! I hope Tynion gets to stay, so far he’s exceeded my expectation!
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Just finished the “Cruel Summer” arc in Criminal and I’m feeling absolutely giddy over how great it is. It’s a similar feeling to watching Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017 and being impressed over and over again that an artist (in the case of Criminal, it’s two) who meant so much to me growing up is still on his A-game and producing arguably his best work.
And it meant a lot seeing Leo Patterson, the star of the very first Criminal arc, again, and in such a substantial role. He’s always been my favorite Criminal protagonist, and for that reason the ending of “Cruel Summer” is gut-wrenching. Teeg Lawless has always cast a long shadow over the events in the Criminal universe and now we have fully have the picture as to why. I know it’s a bit tired nowadays for a story to really be About Trauma, but fuck it, Criminal’s like 15 years old and doing it better than pretty much anybody else. Hats off to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (and Jacob Phillips, too!).
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Wolverine #6 and X-Force #13 are chapters 3 & 4 of X of Swords respectively. By the same creative team (Percy/ Bogdanovic/ Wilson) they tell one story of Wolverine’s journey to hell to retrieve his blade for the upcoming battle. The X-Force issue is basically Wolverine #6.5, as Logan is the only team member in the book. It’s a great, atmospheric two parter, that really focuses on Logan’s Japanese connection – ninja, samurai and demons, oh my – and introduces an enigmatic new adversary that I suspect will outlast this whole event. I think this two parter works well on its own without the wider crossover, but some of the finer details may be a bit confusing if you haven’t read the Creation special at least.
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Dark Nights – Death Metal: Multiverse’s End sees James Tynion channel his inner Grant Morrison in a story that shows the events of John Stewart’s mission into what’s left of the multiverse. It’s alright, I suppose. There’s a nice summary of Snyder & Tynion’s own Justice League run that distils the essence of the story into a handful of pages that make more sense than the 40 odd issues it took to tell in the first place! There’s also a rather nice twist in the denouement, but whilst Tynion is a great superhero writer he can’t quite pull off the craziness required to make this story sing. It’s a bland cover band version of Morrison rather than the real thing.
Tynion does a much better job when he’s playing with the toys in Gotham City.
Batman: The Joker War Zone special was a Secret Files collection of 5 short stories, set in between the panels and featuring characters from the main event. Two of the stories are written by Tynion himself and are pretty much essential reading to his run on the main book – they’re both also very good, and worth the price of admission.
In addition to that there’s some nice Copiel artwork on the John Ridley penned story about the Fox family; a rather throwaway Poison Ivy story; and, a fun little story about two former batgirls that brought a big smile to my face.
And, finally, Batman #100 wraps up “The Joker War” in pretty spectacular fashion. It’s a double sized showdown, that delivers some genuine fist pumping moments alongside some teases for the future that should make the aftermath really interesting for Batman and Gotham City.
Need to give a shout out to Jorge Jiminez and Tomeu Morey too. The art in this book and throughout the arc has been something really special. Gorgeous stuff.
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During a fairly quiet week for me, I decided to pick up Rorschach #1 – and I didn’t think it was bad.
I like that it seems to consciously not be apeing the techniques of Watchmen – unlike most of the prequels/sequels so far – even though it obviously has a relationship to the original, including allusions to Ditko as the original source of the inspiration for Rorschach.
And it also feels like it has something to say about today, like the original Watchmen did, rather than being backwards-looking like all the continuations have been.
There’s not a huge amount to go on, yet – this is very much a first issue of setup that doesn’t really gain much momentum until the end – but so far I’m interested enough to read more.
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I’ve been a bit up and down on the second season of Morrison’s GL run, after enjoying the first. But this is back up there again, the best issue of this second season by quite some way.
I love stories that play with time and causality and this issue has a lot of fun with that, presenting an almost Memento-esque reverse structure where each scene precedes the last, chronologically.
And, like Memento, your assumptions about the initial scenes are turned upside-down when you get towards the end and see some key revelations that cast the story in a very different light.
Morrison doesn’t make it easy – as this is told from a reverse-universe point of view, all of the Green Lanterns’ dialogue is written backwards (in mirror-writing, effectively), and it was only after taking the time to decode that and reading the book a second time but backwards that I really felt like I had a handle on it.
But isn’t it nice to have a Big Two superhero comic that’s worth that kind of effort?
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I can’t wait for season 2 (of GL) to be finished so I can binge this.
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And it also feels like it has something to say about today, like the original Watchmen did, rather than being backwards-looking like all the continuations have been.
There’s not a huge amount to go on, yet – this is very much a first issue of setup that doesn’t really gain much momentum until the end – but so far I’m interested enough to read more.
Ach, damn, Dave, now I’m tempted to buy this after all. In spite of everything. I didn’t even glance at any of the other Watchmen prequels and sequels and whatever, but this one…
I’ll wait what you have to say when the series is over and get the trade if it’s worth it.
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Ach, damn, Dave, now I’m tempted to buy this after all. In spite of everything. I didn’t even glance at any of the other Watchmen prequels and sequels and whatever, but this one…
It’s early days, but this book feels like it justifies its existence more than most of the other spinoffs. (The only other one I really liked was the JMS Dr Manhattan miniseries.)
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Ok, so they saw me coming with this one. And like the recent Transformers/Terminator, it’s difficult to say that this is a great comic. But it is a fun one for fans of the franchises, having some fun with crowbarring Terminators into the original BTTF, unseen, in between certain scenes (similarly to how BTTF2 handled it, in fact) and then plunging Hill Valley into a Decepticon dystopia.
The story is really pretty thin, but it hits some fun notes, even if it does rather feel like the whole thing only exists to set up the final-page “twist” (clue: it’s also on the cover.)
One for fans only, but they’ll probably enjoy it, so long as they can see past the book’s artist drawing the original-model Delorean with Mr Fusion (unforgivable).
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Ok, so they saw me coming with this one. And like the recent Transformers/Terminator, it’s difficult to say that this is a great comic. But it is a fun one for fans of the franchises, having some fun with crowbarring Terminators into the original BTTF, unseen, in between certain scenes (similarly to how BTTF2 handled it, in fact) and then plunging Hill Valley into a Decepticon dystopia.
The story is really pretty thin, but it hits some fun notes, even if it does rather feel like the whole thing only exists to set up the final-page “twist” (clue: it’s also on the cover.)
One for fans only, but they’ll probably enjoy it, so long as they can see past the book’s artist drawing the original-model Delorean with Mr Fusion (unforgivable).
SPOILER WARNING
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This isn’t *new* new, but waiting a couple of months means I can put spoilers in the review. That’s my excuse anyway
Legion of Super-Heroes #7
Showdown with the United Planets
By Bendis, Byrne, Sook, Von Grawbadger, BellaireI’ll be honest, I have no idea how the last issue ended. So that shows you how compelling it was. I’m sure I’ll pick up the story as I read this one, though.
The splash page is Wildfire neatly explaining his background and abilities, which is a nice device to fill in new readers who are confused by the size of this team. Or indeed old readers who are just confused in general. Then we get a recap of the story so far, which makes a lot more sense than, uh, the story so far. I think I’m understanding the plot for the first time in seven issues, so I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this comic.
Big double-page spread of the Legion in action poses, and it’s not the prettiest page I’ve ever seen, but it’s ok. Except, I’m just realising how ugly the new flight rings look:
The issue starts with a whole lot of people standing about talking, which shouldn’t really surprise anyone who’s read other Brian Bendis books. Trying to explain themselves to the United Planets council, Rokk delivers quite a credible diplomatic speech, which is rebuffed. Then Superboy has his say, a rather weaker speech I thought, but miraculously the president of the UP thinks it’s wonderful. And then:
Ok, the president obviously has a thing for Superboy. Actually I’m quite amused by this development. So far, this isn’t a terrible issue.
There are then a few pages of Legionnaires bickering, which is all in the annoying Bendis dialogue style, with the upshot being that a meeting is called to vote for Legion leader, because apparently Rokk was never properly elected.
The meeting has more cutesy annoying dialogue, but also some very nice touches such as Brainy asking for a show of hands and being met with blank stares, leading to:
It’s a neat way to make the point about non-human differences. Actually, that’s a recurring theme in the issue, I’m just starting to realise: cultural difference. And … overall, the theme is nicely handled. Quite a few things are nicely handled in this issue. The series as a whole still has some terrible conceptual and structural problems, but in this issue there are enough moments that make me smile and enough clever ideas that I quite enjoyed reading it. A few months ago I would never have imagined myself saying that.
Next month looks like a huge battle, so I’m sure it will all be horribly confused and tedious again. But we’ll see.
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Read Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 and found it pretty enjoyable.
Much of this issue’s plot involves the last surviving Ninja Turtle, who’s haunted by hallucinations of his deceased brothers, attempting to infiltrate the Foot’s compound and take on its new leader Oroku Hiroto, the Shredder’s grandson. Unlike his grandfather, Hiroto doesn’t get his hands dirty. I won’t spoil which Turtle it is. You’ll probably figure it out by the time you get to the end.
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Yes, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth is finished, and I liked it a lot.
Don’t want to get too spoilerish with Three Jokers yet but ultimately I was expecting the main idea of the series (multiple Jokers) to have a bit more of a point than it ultimately did, and be used to tell a less generic Batman story. In the end you’re left wondering whether any of the events of the series really mattered all that much.
I’m in the same boat. The first two issues were really good, but the ultimate conclusion was a bit meh. Even worse that so much of this mirrors what just went down in Joker War. Maybe it’s time for Johns to go over to Marvel, because with this, he’s pretty much hit everyone at DC, and he’s out of gas.
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Maybe it’s time for Johns to go over to Marvel
Been there, done that, don’t wanna do it again. here’s one of his ideas while he was there
Dell Rusk
“Dell Rusk” The Red Skull returned in modern days as the Secretary of Defense of the United States Dell Rusk, and worked with a the revived Bucky (now called Winter Soldier) in a plan which involved transforming General Ross into the Red Hulk and trying (but failing) to capture Bruce Banner.
The Red Skull later manipulates his way into the position in the form of US Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk (an anagram of “Red Skull”) to develop a biological weapon he tested at Mount Rushmore. He is exposed and defeated by the Avengers.(edit: had to look something up) They were not great stories and they led to the Chuck Austen Avengers and the “new” Captain Britain who was later retrofitted into Lionheart. at which time I stopped collecting Avengers for the first time in my life. (I started at #100 and had bought it every month for roughly 400 issues). Which created an Avengers sized hole in my life until Hickman started writing Avengers.
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Only one I know of is Olympus for Humanoids, with Guice on art.
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Been there, done that, don’t wanna do it again. here’s one of his ideas while he was there
Dell Rusk
“Dell Rusk” The Red Skull returned in modern days as the Secretary of Defense of the United States Dell Rusk, and worked with a the revived Bucky (now called Winter Soldier) in a plan which involved transforming General Ross into the Red Hulk and trying (but failing) to capture Bruce Banner.
The Red Skull later manipulates his way into the position in the form of US Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk (an anagram of “Red Skull”) to develop a biological weapon he tested at Mount Rushmore. He is exposed and defeated by the Avengers.Johns is responsible for one of my favorite Avengers moments:
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Johns is responsible for one of my favorite Avengers moments:
I’m sure that was quite by accident.
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Another Johns’ creator owned book was The Possessed. A six issue mini series with Liam Sharp, published by Wildstorm back in the day. Featured warrior priests fighting demons and performing exorcisms. I remember the opening of the first issue had an exorcism in progress, and when the demon appears, a group of heavily weapon laden priests burst in and blow it back to hell. That was quite funny. I remember nothing else about it though.
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Ambivalent is a good word. It’s like watching a Zack Snyder movie, the art is really really good and it does have some pretty cool scenes and characterisations strewn across it… But it’s just not… there
Didio got fired while this was still developing right? #releasethedidiocut? (Not to be confused with #releasetheidiotcunt because DC already fired him)
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Crossover #1 is a fun first issue that sets out its big high concept nice and quick and gives your brain some interesting ideas to chew on at the same time.
The art is nice and features some cool visual tricks that tie in with the key story ideas, and the lead character is immediately likeable.
Interested to see where this goes.
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Interested to see where this goes.
I’ll be picking my copy up in about 20 minutes.
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I agree about Crossover. It was ace. I had the biggest, goofiest grin on my face when I got to the last page. Very cool.
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Anyone in the UK seen physical copies of Lazarus Risen #5 on the shelves?
No I haven’t seen it. Looks like it’s been sucked into the Diamond black hole along with the last few issues of Dceased,
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After a few weeks of turmoil, whilst we’ve had the builders around, I’ve been playing catch up with my to read pile. Read a lot of things, but I really wanted to give some love to a couple of books that really deserve it.
Adventureman #4 by Fraction and the Dodsons doesn’t really end the first arc; it’s more for practical publishing reasons, I suspect, as the story barely feels like its started yet. That being said there are some answers here to the mystery at the heart of the book explaining a little about how the two timelines interrelate. The humour and energy of this book keeps things breezy, and the amazing artwork captivates. I’ll be double dipping this just to get my hands on the OHC.
I had my reservations about Fire Power after the initial OGN. Not because it was bad, but because it was just so very cliche. I stuck with it though for Samnee, and as we hit #5 I’m very glad that I did. This book has grown into something quite different, telling the story of what happens next when the hero goes back home, settles down and has kids. Kirkman’s character work is always good, and keeps you interested in the soap opera in between Samnee’s kick ass martial arts pages. Rapidly rising to the top of my current faves.
Speaking of which, American Vampire is back with a 9 issue mini-series that promises to bring the series’ long running plot lines to an end. Arguably, my favourite thing Scott Snyder has done, with the possible exception of “Black Mirror”, the last issue came out in 2016. The first two issues don’t skip a beat though, and I was immediately drawn back into the storyline. There were a few details that made me go “huh?” but nothing disruptive, and they just made me want to break out my back issues to remind myself of what came beforehand. Good stuff!
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After a few weeks of turmoil, whilst we’ve had the builders around
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Just caught up with Die. I’m impressed by how the onion of how this world works keeps being peeled. The stuff with the Masters is great. We’re right around the corner from the end of arc as that usually blows something up. Now on with catching up with Once and Future as I’m missing a week of X of Swords.
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I decided to give two new comics a try this past Wednesday at the LCS.
First one is A Girl Walks Alone At Night #1, a 32-page B&W book from Behemoth Comics. Written by Ana Lily Amirpour, who also directed the 2014 film of the same name about a female Iranian vampire. Interesting concept for a film or a comic, but this comic just isn’t worth the $3.99. It consists mostly of single-panel pages with one or two narrative boxes or an occasional word balloon; and the art, which is primarily black backgrounds, isn’t striking enough to warrant that kind of sparse narrative. Took about two minutes to read. I won’t be buying the Book 2.
The next one is Frank at Home on the Farm #1, a 32-page full color book from Scout Comics. Written by Jordan Thomas (a newcomer to my collection), it’s about a WW1 British soldier, suffering a bit from PTSD, returning home to his parents farm, only to find them missing (event though there is a pot boiling on the stove) and with people of the village swearing they’ve never heard of the family. Meanwhile Frank sees and hears strange things on the farm and in the village, and as readers we aren’t sure what is really happening and what is in Frank’s head. The first issue pulled me right into the story, and has intrigued me enough to keep an eye out for the rest of the series. Recommended.
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The new issue of the Department Of Truth is the biggest gut punch I’ve gotten from a comic in a long time.
For some reason it’s reminding me of Shade the Changing Man in the best way.
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I’m so happy the latest arc of Action Comics is over. It. Was. BORING. Cool seeing all the family together, but it was just a mess. Not just the story, but the art too. It’s been stated again and again here that JRJR need the right inker and colorist for his work to, eh, work and this wasn’t it.
I’m not hating Bendis run on the Superman titles, it’s been good in a lot of respects, but at this point I’m kinda longing for it to be over. And I’m definitely not hoping for a retcon on the identity thing either, please DC – Just roll with it for a few years, OK?
I read last weeks Dark Kniggits: Meh Metal tonight and I realize I’ve given up completely on this one. I just don’t care. Like, at all. Maybe “I read” is a bit of strong expression. I looked at the pages. Read most, if not all, of the words. Looked at pretty piuctures. But it just doesn’t work for me. These aren’t my heroes. There aren’t any real stakes. The fights are meaningless.
I would be kinda interested in reading a positive review from some of the hard core DC nerds around here (coughvikramcough) because I’m curious on how and why this works for those for whom it… eh.. works
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Maestro #4 is as close to classic Peter David as anything I’ve seen from him in a decade or more. There’s a scene here that parodies Hulk’s most famous scene in the MCU, and it works brilliantly. The rest of the issue tells the quite clever tale of how Hulk defeats his surprising predecessor to inherit the title. Good stuff.
X-Men #15 was the best issue of this book for a long time, possibly since it launched. Full of talking heads as Cyclops drives a wedge into the very foundation of Krakoa’s Quiet Council, putting family before the mutant agenda. Long time fan of Scott Summers here, and it’s refreshing to see him written more classically heroic than General Douchebag.
X of Swords: Destruction brings the crossover to a close in a pretty epic “Endgame” level brawl. With lots of pretty pictures from Perez and Gracia. It’s a fun issue, but having skipped several chapters of the arc I was confused in places as to what the heck was going on.
For those of you on the fence with Hickman et al’s X-Men books I don’t think this storyline is going to convince you to jump back on board. It was fun, but at 22 issues overly long and excessive. It did have a few entertaining moments and some fantastic artwork. Cautiously optimistic about where it all goes from here.
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Totally get that. I wish I could love it unreservedly, but I vacillate wildly between liking it quite a bit and finding it all mind-numbingly frustrating.
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Just read Department Of Truth #3 and thought it was pretty incredible – very powerful and moving, a tough read but a great one. This book is growing into something even better than I expected after its strong start.
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I don’t know what but something is happening with this week’s Daredevil that copies are being found already up on eBay for $25. Clearly put there by some comics retailers as it doesn’t go on sale until today.
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I just looked it up and honestly it doesn’t look like the development is that big a deal (without spoilers, it reminded me of something similar in the Bendis/Brubaker era), so it does seem more like mindless speculator activity than anything else. Driven by a BleedingCool article, unsurprisingly.
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I just looked at the article (first time I’ve visited BC for years.) DUMB! New comics are DUMB! I maintain my stance that anything that happens after the first 300 issues of a title is just fan-wank and can pretty much be ignored.
Sorry… old-man-rant over.
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It’s fairly unusual for a comic like this to be going for six times cover price before it’s even released, but yeah I imagine people aren’t making that much money out of it. It’s just shit for the buyers who want to get a copy on release day.
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I’ve read the first 8 or so issues and Zdarsky’s run is actually very good. As such I will try, probably in vain, to avoid the spoiler but the whole ebay thing is complete craziness now. In some ways it’s actually less logical than the 90s speculation on gimmicks, someone is just hyping up some nonsense like that Joker’s daughter thing and creating a an artificial boom and relying on people to fall for it.
I guess it gets some points for being inventive but in the end value always comes back to supply and demand. Modern comics can appreciate, a first print of Walking Dead is worth a lot but it’s because it was an unknown quantity with unknown creators so they only printed 7,000 copies of it. It’ll never happen to a Robert Kirkman book again.
This comic will go back to being $3.99, a few people will have made a small sum of money perhaps and comics fans who just wanted to read a Daredevil comic they enjoy will get pissed off because there aren’t any copies in their shop today.
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Chip’s run is up there as one of my favourite DD runs. I’m getting the trades electronically and thinking of getting hardcovers/omnibuses as it’s that good.
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OHC1 of Zdarsky-Checchetto is currently set for April 2021
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Batman #103 & 104 – in the aftermath of Joker War it’s good to see Tynion really trying to bring something new to the book. New characters, new dynamics. Not everything is a home run (Ghost-Maker is incredibly annoying, although I suspect this may be intentional) but Clown-Hunter is a great new character, and Harley Quinn’s more endearing than she’s ever been beforehand. It’s a lot of fun, only let down by some artistic inconsistency. Good stuff.
I also read Dept Of Truth #3 and Fire Power #6. Both were excellent.
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Black Magick #16 was a great read, a dramatic and exciting climax to the current arc. And for a book that has always set a high standard in art this was one of the best issues yet, especially the use of colour.
It’s a shame that it’s going on hiatus again but I’m already looking forward to it coming back next year.
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Rorschach #2 was a jigsaw puzzle of an issue, where the mystery is slowly revealed piece by piece. It does little to advance the plot of the first issue, but is a nice little side story of its own. I have no idea if or how this connects to the original Watchmen comic or the recent TV series, but King/ Fornes/ Stewart have put together a quality book so far.
Talking of King, I’m definitely not a huge fan of his Batman run, but it was a light week so I picked up Batman/ Catwoman #1 too. Clay Mann is drawing this, and it looks fantastic. The story, at least as much as can be gathered from this first issue, hearkens back to Loeb’s Long Halloween – a storytelling model that should suit King’s style well. I’m intrigued enough to come back for more.
Hellboy & the BPRD: The Seven Wives Club by Mike Mignola & Adam Hughes has been delayed for a year (or more), but finally arrived recently and was definitely worth the wait. It’s a fun little story that looks absolutely gorgeous, thanks to Hughes. Well worth getting for the rare Hughes sequentials, even if you’re not a big fan of the Mignolaverse.
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Rorschach #2 was a jigsaw puzzle of an issue, where the mystery is slowly revealed piece by piece. It does little to advance the plot of the first issue, but is a nice little side story of its own. I have no idea if or how this connects to the original Watchmen comic or the recent TV series, but King/ Fornes/ Stewart have put together a quality book so far.
Yeah, I read this and quite enjoyed it for similar reasons.
The specific way it revealed the past actions at the same time as showing the investigation in the present reminded me heavily of the technique Morrison and Quitely used in their Pax Americana issue of Multiversity.
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Legion of Super-Heroes #8
The Trial of the Legion of Super-Heroes – Part 1
By Brian Bendis and every artist DC had lying around spare.
Warning: although the story called The Trail of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the trial doesn’t take place in this issue. All we get is a single caption in the last panel of the issue telling us that the trial is about to being.
But I’m being nit-picky, in a comic that has far bigger problems than nits.
We start with full-page flashbacks to the try-outs of three Legion members: Element Lad, Dream Girl, and Projectra (she isn’t called Projectra anywhere in the issue, I’m not sure if her code name has been announced at all in this series, so I’m just assuming). You get a short look at their powers, background and personalities, which is good because in this incarnation we can’t take any of that info for granted, even if we’ve been reading earlier Legions for decades. Waiting until issue 8 of the series to give any of that info on three major characters is a bit silly, but that’s where we are, and hey that’s more than we know about two dozen other Legionnaires so far.
Of the three, the Projectra page is the most interesting character and the best scripted page, as well as the best drawn. (Did I mention that each page of this issue has a different artist? I think Projectra’s page is Joelle Jones; never heard of her(?) but it’s nicely laid out.)
Then there’s a big fight scene in Metropolis which isn’t helped at all by switching artist every page. I struggle to know what’s going on, it’s so fragmented that I can’t tell how many villains there are, what their abilities are, what the Legion’s tactics are. People stand around doing nothing specific or get thrown around in explosions that have no obvious cause. It’s a mess, frankly.
I’m not even going to mention the appalling editorial blunder on page 11 (I think?). It’s just embarrassing in a professional comic.
Page 15 (decent art by Bilquis Evely) has a quiet interlude with Rokk who’s having a crisis of confidence after losing the leadership vote, and it’s the best page of the issue. Rokk’s feelings are well scripted and feel honest and, and I like him here more than I’ve really liked any Legionnaire for the last 8 issues.
And then there’s more random and confusing action, more random and confusing waffle, and that’s it.
I’m sorry I’m writing these reviews so many months after the comics appear, but it really is a struggle to make myself enthusiastic enough to read them.
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Legion of Super-Heroes #9
The Trial of the Legion of Super-Heroes – Part 2
By Brian Bendis and all the rest of the artists DC had lying around spare.
Now we finally get to the trial itself. The one-page-per artist thing works better here. Each page is the ‘testimony’ of a different Legionnaire, so it’s disjointed by design, so the disjointed art isn’t quite so jarring.
There are some quite hilarious things, though, such as Mike Grell drawing Dawnstar with her classic look (completely different from her current look in every respect) with no explanation for why, because, well as we’ve already established the editor of this book doesn’t give a damn about it. I would normally be deliriously happy with a page of classic Dawnstar by Mike Grell, but it looks like Grell dashed off the page in his coffee break as it’s not actually all that great.
And page 10 doesn’t even have an artist, I mean, literally, there is no name credited for the page. They must have had someone miss his deadline, because it’s just a random blurred image repeated six times to make six panels with dialogue overlaid. Seriously. Yes, really, seriously, DC put out a book with a blurred photostat for a page. Really.
Anyway, on with the plot, such as it is. The ‘testimony’ consists mostly of the prosecutor (who happens to be the UP President, because why would the UP bother with things like trail lawyers? To be fair the Legionnaire’s defence attorney seems to be Shadow Lass for no clear reason at all, so maybe UP law lets just anyone have a go at the bar of the highest court in the galaxy. But I’m starting to ramble like a Bendis script, so let’s get back to the plot.)
So, the testimony consists of footage of the Legion founders meeting prospective new members and pitching the Legion to them (why was this secretly filmed and by whom?). In each case, the founders are very clear that the Legion does not answer to the President, has complete autonomy, and in fact that they anti- the United Planets and are trying to ‘fix’ it. Pretty damning stuff.
(Aside: haven’t we already established that Monster Boy can’t control what he turns into? And then when asked what is the biggest thing he can turn into, turns into a Moby Dick of Space (nicely drawn by Nick Derington). That’s a pretty lucky random choice. (Or maybe he turned into 20 mouse-sized monsters off-panel, and they only showed the one time he got lucky with a big monster. Who knows what Bendis ever means in these scripts? Certainly not the editor, who isn’t even reading the comic these days.))
And then the defence trots out footage of the founders meeting different members and telling them ,hey, we love the UP, we support the President, let’s all toe the line!
This is quite intriguing. Assuming all the footage is correct (and none of it is challenged, but then the court doesn’t seem to have a ‘your honour’ to address objections to), then what this shows us are three Legion founders who habitually lie through their teeth, who tell their members anything they want to hear if it will get them on side.Wow. That’s pretty … wow.
And then, the trial’s over, the President reveals that is was all a joke and she loves the Legion really, or something. I have no clue.
Did I mention that Dream Girl has predicted a great darkness is coming? Can you tell how excited I am for this?
Never mind Darkseid, let’s have the Time Trapper as the next villain. This timeline needs to be quietly put out of its misery.
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I apologise for the many typos in the above posts, but in my defence, DC are charging $3.99 for a book with far more errors
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But I’m starting to ramble like a Bendis script
Completely untrue. Your writing is coherent.
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So what was the Legion on trial for anyway?
Amazon Prime.
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we’ve already established the editor of this book doesn’t give a damn about it.
Are you sure there is an editor? with so many editors fired recently maybe they let Bendis do what ever he wanted and just put some guy’s name in the editor box who was supposed to proof read the issue.
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I just read Captain Marvel 22 & 23. Thompson does a good job,imo, of placing Carol in bizarre situations. This time she is in a postapocalyptic future with a younger generation of Marvel heroes. She starts the issue with her getting lovey dovey with James Rhodes. then she gets hauled away to this future and meets Rhodes’ daughter who is not hers as well as a grown up version of Spider Woman’s son. I love this stuff where they create new characters by extrapolating from current information. Carol and the remaining heroes fight monsters and Carol learns about the “big bad” that exists then the “big bad” makes contact and there is a cliffhanger waiting for next issue.
If, like me, you like alternative takes of the MU, take a look. 22 is the start of the story. The only thing you might need to know is Carol has a relationship with Rhodes and adventures with Spider Woman, Hazmat(from Avengers Academy) and Rhodes
I’d give 4/5 because I love the ideas Thompson is putting forth.
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I managed to get most of the comics I was missing so I have about 40 x books to read. I have read the latest Die which I thoroughly enjoyed whilst it does horrible things to its characters and the Union. Now I would have bought it for Paul Grist, but the name plus Union Jack are bonuses. Again I enjoyed and always like to see more Marvel UK. This felt more british compared to Revolutionary War, which also suffered with some of the art.
Hawkman 29 was a good last issue. I remain impressed how Venditti has solved the continuity problems and given us back Shayera Thal after Dave Gibbons killed her.
LOSH – it was better than the trial issues. I have 5YL omnibus coming for Christmas so I’ll remind myself of good Legion. There are moments I like, but Young Justice was way better and it looks like no reprise for that.
Batman/Catwoman was good. 5 dollars good. I’m not sure.
Other stuff requires me to catchup. I’m almost through X Men Empyre.
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There’s even a nod to Spawn #10 (the Cerebus issue) here too.
I think I saw that in the preview art – the hands through the bars. Funny how recognisable that is all these years later.
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Yep. The original was a pretty powerful and iconic image. There’s a whole in story explanation for it in #2.
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I picked up the first issue of the new Batman: Black & White series on a whim and really enjoyed it. I’ll rank the stories:
“The Demon’s Fist” by James Tynion IV & Tradd Moore – Moore’s art is incredible. I’ve always liked what I’ve seen of his work but haven’t read much of it. His art here is like a mash-up between Sin City & Jim Steranko. Great stuff. The story is good too, told from the perspective of one of Ra’s al Ghul’s endless supply of cannon fodder.
“Metamorphosis” by G. Willow Wilson & Greg Smallwood – Seriously twisted tale about a woman who has a strange relationship–shocking even to Batman–with Killer Croc.
“Weight” by J.H. Williams III – A Covid-19 story. It could’ve been corny but it really works. Williams’s art is stunning as ever; in a montage sequence, he draws in the styles of Neal Adams, Norm Breyfogle, Jim Aparo, Bruce Timm, Greg Capullo, & his Batman: Snow collaborator Seth Fisher (RIP) among others.
“First Flight” by Paul Dini & Andy Kubert – Fun little story about Talia al Ghul’s first failed attempt at making ninja Man-Bats. Kubert’s art is fantastic. He’s hit or miss with me but all hit here.
“Sisyphus” by Emma Rios – Definitely the weakest of the bunch. Rios is one of my all-time favorite artists, and I like her writing a lot in the Image books Mirror and I.D., but here she tries to write like Cormac McCarthy or someone and the story ends up being incomprehensible and the sentences cringey. Her art looks as good as ever, though.
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I also got the Last Stories of the DC Universe – a big $8.99 triple sized special. Haven’t had the opportunity to read this yet, but it looks like a pretty cool book in an extremely fan service way.
I have read it now, and enjoyed it. It is definitely giving service to the Titans’ fans, as they reunite and re-establish familial bonds on the eve of the “big showdown”. It’s saccharine sweet, and cheesy as hell, but it made me smile.
But, in addition to this, it also has 2 or 3 stories that would appeal to a wider audience.
Gail Simone writes a Green Arrow/ Black Canary short that really gets to the heart of their relationship.
Jeff Lemire and Rafael Albuquerque on a fantastic Green Lantern short as Hal and Sinestro reconcile (temporarily, I’m sure).
And, finally, Mark Waid writes a brilliant & inspiring Superman story (I’m definitely on board if he’s got the Super-books next year).
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