4-25
I did not keep my resolution to write these reviews more frequently. This post is dedicated to three comics people who have passed away since my last post: Robert Beerbohm, Ed Piskor, and Trina Robbins.
TONGUES #6 (Fantagraphics, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Anders Nilsen. Astrid travels to an underground cave where she has a mystical vision that takes up most of the issue. The vision sequence is illustrated with radically experimental page layouts and abstract imagery. Tongues’s plot is really not all that innovative, but what makes it fascinating is Nilsen’s gorgeous draftsmanship and brilliant page designs. I regret that it will probably be at least another year before the next issue comes out.
GRASS KINGS #11 (Image, 2018) – untitled, [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Tyler Jenkins. I’ve realized that this is the one Matt Kindt comic that I don’t like at all. Grass Kings has a confusing plot and no apparent central theme, and its characters are too hard to tell apart. All I can gather about this comic’s plot is that the cop with the thick beard is the main villain, and that the “Grass Kingdom” is a separatist microstate on an island.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY #8 (1999) – “Flashpoint,” [W] Mark Waid, [A] Cully Hamner & Scott Elmer (as Pondscum). In a flashback to the ‘70s, the Sons of the Serpent rename themselves to the Sons of the Shield, claiming Captain America as their inspiration, and they manipulate Cap into furthering their racist agenda. When the Sons appear to have killed Cap, the Falcon has to become the new Captain America. Chris Gavaler has analyzed all the Sons of the Serpent stories in great detail, arguing that they tend to support racism while superficially appearing antiracist. Gavaler says that Cap: Sentinel #8 (along with #9) is “possibly the worst comic book ever made,” which seems overblown to me, but it’s not a good comic either. The fatal flaw with this issue is that Cap allows the Sons to manipulate him, and never publicly denounces them in any way, even though there’s no reason he ouldn’t have done so.
DETECTIVE COMICS #639 (DC, 1991) – “The Idiot Part 2: The Queen of Hearts,” [W] Peter Milligan, [A] Jim Aparo. Batman travels to Brazil to investigate the Idiot Root, which has the power to link people’s minds together. The Idiot Root story is a rare example of a DC comic set in Brazil, though it relies on tired stereotypes about voodoo and Amazonian Indians. This issue includes a 16-page Sonic the Hedgehog preview comic, which seems to be set in a different continuity from the Archie Sonic comics.
QUANTUM TEENS ARE GO #4 (Black Mask, 2017) – untitled, [W] Magdalene Visaggio, [A] Eryk Donovan. Some teenagers investigate a time travel conspiracy, and one of them discovers that his parents were time travelers from different eras. This is the last issue, and it doesn’t make much sense on its own. I’m glad to see that Mags finally has a new creator-owned comic solicited in Previews.
THUNDERBOLTS #170 (Marvel, 2012) – “Days of Yore,” [W] Jeff Parker, [A] Kev Walker. During their time travel adventure, the Thunderbolts find themselves in Arthurian times, and they unintentionally cause the fall of Camelot. A funny moment in this issue is when Moonstone discovers Lancelot and Guinevere in bed together. This Thunderbolts run was consistently excellent, and it deserves to be better known.
SUPURBIA #1 (Boom!, 2012) – untitled, [W] Grace Randolph, [A] Russell Dauterman. This is the first issue of the ongoing series. In this issue the writer sets up a number of different soap-opera-stlye plotlines. Supurbia is an entertaining series, but most of the characters are very unsympathetic, except for the Wonder Woman analogue’s husband and children. I wonder what Russell Dauterman is doing now; I feel like I haven’t read a new comic by him in a while.
TUG & BUSTER #6 (Art & Soul, 1997) – “Feast Don’t Fail Me Now,” [W/A] Marc Hempel. Tug and his friends go to a restaurant, while Buster stays home and has hot sex with Tug’s mother. This comic has some creative and unsuual artwork, but otherwise I don’t see the appeal of it. The whole series just seems like an immature male wish-fulfillment fantasy. Tug is an immature child, and Buster is the incarnation of what he wishes he was, but Hempel does not try to ask whether Buster is a good thing to be. One of Tug’s friends, Genital Ben, also appeared in Cerebus under the name Gently Bent. Which BTW is a problem with the later years of Cerebus – they were full of things that only made sense to readers who were deeply familiar with other comics of the time.
MAGGIE THE CAT #1 (Image, 1996) – untitled, [W/A] Mike Grell. Maggie was a recurring character in Jon Sable. This issue and the one after it were her only solo comics. In this story, while Maggie is visiting her castle in Scotland, an army sergeant hires her to track down a Nazi terrorist and his stolen art. This comic is entertaining enough, but even in 1996, Grell’s art was looking outdated. He never really adapted his style to new coloring technologies.
DAREDEVIL: YELLOW #3 (Marvel, 2001) – “Stepping into the Ring,” [W] Jeph Loeb, [A] Tim Sale. An account of Matt’s early career as both a lawyer and a superhero. This issue is full of Tim Sale’s typical beautiful page layouts and camera angles. But it’s hard not to compare this comic to Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, which was the definitive “Daredevil: Year One” story, even if it stops before the point where Yellow begins.
BOB MORANE VOL. 15 (Dargaud, 1972) – “L’archipel de la terreur,” [W] Henri Vernes, [A] William Vance. Until recently I only knew Vance as the artist of XIII, but he had a much more varied career than that. Bob Morane is an adaptation of Vernes’s own long-running series of adventure novels. The similarly named Bob Marone, by Yann and Conrad, is a parody of Bob Morane. In this album Bob investigates a mysterious island where airplanes keep disappearing, and he rescues the plane’s passengers and defeats a science-fictional plot to conquer the world. Of the BD albums I’ve read lately, this was among the least impressive. Bob is just a standard square-jawed hero with no apparent personality. Vernes and Vance’s writing and artwork are solid and professional, but nothing about this album was particularly distinctive or unusual. In my memory this album blurred together with Luc Orient volume 10.
INSEXTS #10 (Aftershock, 2017) – “Necropolis,” [W] Marguerite Bennett, [A] Ariela Kristantina. The protagonists investigate the mystery of the missing female artists, and they discover that the artists have been turned to stone by a gorgon. A consistent problem with Bennett’s work is that her feminist ideas are not new or surprising. It seems as if she’s responding to ideas that are just obvious strawmen – for example, the idea that women shouldn’t be allowed to make paintings or sculptures. She misses her chance to explore feminist ideas in more subtle or surprising ways. What does make Insexts more intriguing than her other work is its use of body horror. This makes Insexts feel less safe or tame than DC Comics Bombshells.
INCREDIBLE HULK #110 (Marvel, 2007) – “Warbound Part V,” [W] Greg Pak, [A] Carlo Pagulayan. In a World War Hulk crossover, Amadeus tries to convince the Hulk to accept his help, and the Hulk claims to be an irredeemable murderer, but Amadeus points out that the Hulk hasn’t killed anyone except in war or self-defense. The idea that the Hulk has never killed anybody by accident is impossible to believe, but it’s covered by suspension of disbelief. Greg Pak’s version of the Hulk was perhaps most simliar to Joe Fixit, except less selfish or unprincipled.
MERRY MEN #3 (Oni, 2016) – untitled, [W] Robert Rodi, [A] Jackie Lewis. Merry Men is a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, with the twist that all the outlaws are gay. In this issue Robin and his men battle Guy of Gisborne, who is serving the Sheriff’s anti-gay agenda. This was a clever and enjoyable series. It’s too bad that issues 4 and 5 were only published in trade paperback form. I’ve recently read two other Robin Hood stories, Parke Godwin’s Sherwood and Robin McKinley’s The Outlaws of Sherwood. These novels share with Merry Men the idea of Robin Hood as a champion of the Saxons against the invading Normans. This interpretation of Robin Hood seems to derive from Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.
NIGHT’S DOMINION #6 (Oni, 2017) – untitled, [W/A] Ted Naifeh. In the finale of season one, the various heroes save the city, but there’s worse trouble coming. I regret that I didn’t read these comics when they came out, and that Night’s Dominion ended after just ten issues.
NIGHTHAWK #5 (Marvel, 2016) – untitled, [W] David F. Walker, [A] Martín Morazzo. Nighthawk is captured by the Revelator, whose name comes from Blind Willie Johnson’s song “John the Revelator.” After escaping, Nighthawk teams up with Doctor Nightshade to uncover a plot to foment a race war. I have more issues of this series to review later, but I will point out here that Nighthawk is perhaps David F. Walker’s best work, and it may also be Marvel’s most politically radical treatment of race.
ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN #8 (Image, 2018) – “I’m Bound to Go,” [W/A] Kyle Starks. In the final issue, the protagonist defeats the devil and returns to his family. This is an excellent series, one of Kyle Starks’s best, but it would have had more of an impact if I had a clearer memory of the series’s plot. I’m not sure why I didn’t read this issue when it came out.
Back to Heroes on March 9, I think:
DUKE #3 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Tom Reilly. Destro hires Major Bludd and his Bloodhounds to break Duke out of prison. The Baroness kills Bludd so that she can claim the bounty on Duke herself. Image has announced two new G.I. Joe miniseries, Destro and Scarlett. I assume that these are all leading up to an ongoing G.I. Joe miniseries, which will be one of the most anticipated comics of whatever year it comes out.
POWER PACK: INTO THE STORM #2 (Marvel, 2024) – “Up in the Air”, [W] Louise Simonson, [A] June Brigman. While escaping from Mayhem in Djinna’s ship, Power Pack and Djinna are captured by a living spaceship. Franklin uses his dream powers to contact Storm for assistance, but then Djinna’s ship gets blown up with the sleeping Franklin still in it. This is a very fun comic that has the exact same feel as the classic Power Pack series had. This issue mentions that Kofi’s father has cast a spell on Jim and Margaret Power to prevent them from noticing anything unusual about their children. I thought that was new information, but I guess it was already established in the original Power Pack series. My own headcanon is that Power Pack’s parents do know about their children’s secret identities, but that all the other superheroes have a secret agreement with the Power parents to keep the Power children safe.
SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK #6 (Marvel, 2024) – “All In Part 1,” [W] Rainbow Rowell, [A] Ig Guara. Jen has an annoying day at work, and hten she and Jack go on a vacation in space. Unfortunately, Jen runs into Jack’s old flame Ganymede. This character is so obscure that I’ve never read a story with her before. I think she mostly appeared in Ron Marz’s Silver Surfer run. That’s why the next-issue blurb says “Better start digging through those back-issue bins!” Ig Guara is good at drawing weird-looking aliens.
UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #28 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Scott Snyder & Charles Soule, [A] Giuseppe Camuncoli & Leonardo Marcello Grassi. The previous storyline ended on a cliffhanger, with the main characters’ train about to plunge off a cliff. This issue begins with a flashback explaining why the trains aren’t reaching their destination. In the present, the train indeed falls off the cliff, but the protagonists survive thanks to a Voltron suit that I had forgotten about. Then they return to Bounty, where one of the giants shockingly rips Daniel in half.
RADIANT BLACK #28 (Image, 2024) – “The Third Door,” [W] Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark, [A] Eduardo Ferigato. Marshall attends Nathan’s funeral. Then he faces the third challenge, in which energy geysers erupt all over Chicago. Marshall comes up with what he thinks is a clever solution to this, but his solution is wrong, and the whole city is destroyed. This time around, Marshall obviously made the wrong choice. Would Nathan have done any better? Well…
RADIANT BLACK #28.5 (Image, 2024) – “The Third Door,” [W] Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark, [A] Marcelo Costa. Nathan faces the same challenge as Marshall, but instead of trying to solve it himself, he asks for help from Marshall, the other Radiants, and the Internet. Thanks to their assistance, Nathan saves the city, and only one person is killed – but ironically, that person is Nathan’s father. I still think it’s fascinating to read these paired stories together. A strange thing about this pair of issues is that this time around, Nathan saves Chicago by relying on other people’s help: the key line is “it’s not a shortcut to let the people who love you, help you.” But in #26 and #26.5, it was Nathan who refused to accept help, with tragic results.
KAYA #16 (Image, 2024) – “Kaya and the Temple of Shazir,” [W/A] Wes Craig. Jin befriends a fox girl named Varia, then he drinks from the healing spring and falls unconscious. The rebels are unable to help because they’re busy invading the palace. Kaya is forced to dive into the spring in order to retrieve a flower that can save Jin. Unusually, this issue is narrated by Jin rather than Kaya.
RARE FLAVOURS #4 (Boom!, 2024) – “Daal Fry, Dhaba Style,” [W] Ram V, [A] Filipe Andrade. Mo decides to return to Rubin, despite having learned that Rubin is a cannibalistic demon. While they’re waiting for lunch to be ready, Rubin tells Mo his origin story. The featured dish in this issue is dal. I’ve had dal many times, but usually as a side dish rather than a main course. Dal bhat is the Indian equivalent of rice and beans in New World cuisines.
BIRDS OF PREY #7 (DC, 2024) – “Undercover Animals Part 1,” [W] Kelly Thompson, [A] Javier Pina. The first half of this issue is a training sequence. Then the Birds of Prey are hired to investigate some crimes committed by people wearing Vixen’s clothing line. The highlght of this issue is the fashion designs in the last panel. Javier Pina is a good artist, but not as good as the other Javiers, Rodriguez and Pulido.
TORPEDO 1972 #1 (Ablaze, 2017/2024) – “About the Dead Sea,” [W] Enrique Sánchez Abuli, [A] Eduardo Risso. The original Torpedo, by Abuli, Alex Toth, and Jordi Bernet, is a classic Spanish comic. That series was set in the 1930s and starred a mob hitman, Luca Torelli. I believe IDW has published the entire series in English. Torpedo 1936 ended in 2000, and this more recent sequel is set in 1972, when Torelli is a decrepit old man. When a journalist contacts him and sets up a photo shoot, Luca brutally rapes the woman who’s photographing him. Eduardo Risso is an ideal successor to Bernet, but the problem with this issue is the rape scene. It feels exploitative, and it destroys any sympathy the reader might have had for the protagonist. Also, this comic’s translation is not great.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #1 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Peach Momoko. I didn’t order this comic, but I bought it on impulse – and I’m glad I did. This issue stars Armor, Hisako Ichiki, whose middle school crush has just committed suicide. While being pursued by a ghost, Hisako discovers her mutant powers. This issue doesn’t feel like an X-Men comic at all, but it has beautiful artwork which is inspired by both manga and East Asian ink painting, and its story is compelling. Peach Momoko is basically a manga artist who happens to work for the American market.
IMMORTAL THOR #7 (Marvel, 2024) – “All Trials Are One,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Martín Cóccolo. This issue completes the retelling of the Utgard-Loki myth. This issue feels unnecessary. As already acknowledged, it’s a rehash of a story that Marvel has done before, and it doesn’t add much that’s not in Thor #272. I do like how Martín Cóccolo draws the cat that’s Jormungand in disguise.
PHANTOM ROAD #9 (Image, 2024) – “I See You,” [W] Jeff Lemire, [A] Gabriel Hernandez Walta. When Dom and Birdie touch the baby zombie, it causes each of them to relive the other’s trauma. We discover that Dom accidentally ran over his own son, and Birdie was sexually abused by a priest. Then some soldiers or cops try to invade Dom and Birdie’s hotle room, but the zombie kills them. The third protagonist, Theresa, only appears briefly.
W0RLDTR33 #8 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] James Tynion IV, [A] Fernando Blanco. Thanks to Gabriel’s will, his four old friends are now very rich. But the catch is that they now have to save the world from the Undernet, the Lovecraftian entity that lurks underneath the Internet. With this revelation, the overall plot of the series finally makes much more sense. Because of the idea of a reclusive genius who brings all his old friends together one last time, this issue reminds me of The Nice House on the Lake – whose sequel has just been announced.
WHITE WIDOW #4 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Sarah Gailey, [A] Alessandro Miracolo. Yelena and her friends finally defeat Renata Best, and then they decide to form a permanent team. As noted in my review of issue 3, this miniseries was much better than I expected.
SHAZAM! #9 (DC, 2024) – “Creeped Out!”, [W] Mark Waid, [A] Emanuela Lupacchino. Jack Ryder interviews Billy Batson in his typical aggressive, rude style, then tricks Billy into revealing his secret identity. Then Shazam and Jack, in his Creeper form, team up against the Shadow Thief. I’m sorry that this is Mark’s last issue of Shazam, because he was doing a great job. However, the new writer, Josie Campbell, is also quite good.
POISON IVY #20 (DC, 2024) – “The Secret Origin of Pamela Isley! Part 2,” [W] G. Willow Wilson, [A] Marcio Takara. Jason Woodrue starts neglecting Pamela – his student, lover, and criminal accomplice – in favor of his new student Bella Garten. Pamela and Bella fall in love with each other, but Bella is able to see Woodrue for the monster he is, while Pamela still wants his approval. Pamela agrees to let Woodrue subject her to an experiment. A memorable scene in this issue is this exchange:
BELLA: I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at this. That we have to put up with this type of guy in order to do what we love.
PAMELA: He’s a genius though. Whatever else he might be, he’s an actual genius. Geniuses are allowed to play by different rules, right? Because what they do is too important to worry about shallow social conventions –
BELLA: And who’s doing this genius’s heavy lifting? Hmm? Who’s here day and night making sure his genius experiments don’t wither and die?
This effectively demonstrates the problem with the traditional masculinist idea of “genius.”
PINE AND MERRIMAC #3 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Kyle Starks, [A] Fran Galán. In a flashback, we see that Linnea and Parker used to be a homicide detective and a prizefighter, but due to stress, Linnea had to quit her job, and she and her husband moved to a small town. BTW, the characters are not named Pine and Merrimac; the title refers to the street corner where their office is. In the present, the protagonists sneak into a meeting of the local cult. This miniseries got off to a slow start, but I’m beginning to enjoy it more now.
NEWBURN #15 (Image, 2024) – “Misguided Vendetta,” [W] Chip Zdarsky, [A] Jacob Phillips. Emily is summoned to the Black Castle to explain who killed Mario Albano. During the meeting, Newburn manipulates Michael Albano into meeting with him in person. Then Newburn blows up the building they’re in, apparently killing himself as well as the entire Albano family. This is the next to last issue. There’s also another backup story that’s a total waste of space .
HACK/SLASH: BACK TO SCHOOL #3 (Image, 2024) – “The Mother,” [W/A] Zoe Thorogood. Cassie and her classmates hunt down a Slasher who has a habit of performing disgusting experiments on women. They defeat the Slasher and rescue his final victim’s daughter. This issue is full of disgusting body horror, a theme which is not characteristic of Thorogood’s other comics that I’ve read. As usual her visual storytelling is excellent.
ICE CREAM MAN #38 (Image, 2024) – “Escape from Garyland,” [W] W. Maxwell Prince, [A] Martín Morazzo. This issue is set in a prison full of other identical Garys, distinguished from each other only by number. Various Garys keep trying to escape and getting killed, until one Gary, the protagonist of the issue, finally manages to escape. This story has an interesting setup, but the conclusion doesn’t feel satisfactory. In particular, it’s clear that the Garys are part of a scientific experiment, but we don’t find out what the purpose of the experiment is.
THE LAST MERMAID #1 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Derek Kirk Kim. This issue represents Derek Kirk Kim’s return to comics, after a ten-year period when he exclusively worked in animation. The Last Mermaid is about a mermaid who travels through a postapocalyptic wasteland in a robot suit, accompanied by her pet axolotl. There are no characters in the issue other than the mermaid and the axolotl. This is an intriguing setup. The Last Mermaid has nothing in common, either visually or narratively, with Kim’s earlier works like Same Difference and The Eternal Smile.
HARRIET TUBMAN, DEMON SLAYER #6 (Massive, 2024) – untitled, [W] David Crownson, [A] Matteo Illuminati. I ordered this before I read issue 1, and I felt obligated to buy it, even though I didn’t really want to. There’s nothing interesting about this comic at all. It’s just a generic horror/action comic that has Harriet Tubman as its protagonist.
JILL AND THE KILLERS #2 (Oni, 2024) – untitled, [W] Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, [A] Roberta Ingranata. With this issue, the alternate-reality-game (ARG) element of the first issue is abandoned, and the series becomes a more conventional murder mystery. The highlight of the issue is when Jill and her friends trail a murder suspect, and it turns out that he didn’t commit a crime, he just ordered a blow-up doll.
JAY GARRICK: THE FLASH #5 (DC, 2024) – “The Doctor is In!”, [W] Jeremy Adams, [A] Diego Olortegui. Jay and Judy continue their fight with Doctor Elemental. Also there’s a cameo appearance by Dr. Mid-Nite, and he mentions that Jay used to be called Joel Ciclone. This actually was Jay’s name in old Brazilian translations.
LOVE EVERLASTING #13 (Image, 2024) – “The Love in His Eyes,” [W] Tom King, [A] Elsa Charretier. This issue retells Joan’s first encounter with the Cowboy from the Cowboy’s perspective. This particular version of Joan’s story is set in the ‘60s, during a campus protest (I read this comic before the current wave of campus protests began). Also, there are some backstage scenes where we see the Cowboy at the office with the other people who are manipulating Joan.
GOLGOTHA MOTOR MOUNTAIN #1 (IDW, 2024) – untitled, [W] Matthew Erman & Lonnie Nadler, [A] Robbi Rodriguez. I ordered this because of Robbi Rodriguez’s art, although I hated Matthew Erman’s last creator-owned series, Good Luck. Rodriguez was accused of sexual impropriety in June 2020, at the same time as Jason Latour, and I don’t know if I should still be supporting him. However, it seems like the accusations against him weren’t as serious as those against Latour. Anyway, Golgotha Motor Mountain is about two lowlife Appalachian criminals who discover an alien artifact. Rodriguez’s artwork is really good, but this comic’s subject matter is not interesting to me.
GODZILLA: WAR AGAINST HUMANITY #4 (IDW, 2024) – untitled, [W] Andrew MacLean, [A] Jake Smith. I never got issue 3. This issue is just a big fight scene with Godzilla on one side, and Zoospora and its army on the other. Jake Smith’s artwork is reminiscent of James Stokoe’s, though his draftsmanship isn’t nearly as good.
SLOW BURN #5 (Boom!, 2024) – “Luke”, [W] Ollie Masters, [A] Pierluigi Minotti. This comic’s plot was unintelligible, and its characters are uninteresting. Also, the whole series has a bleak, hopeless tone that does not appeal to me. I wish I hadn’t ordered this.
TERRORWAR #9 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Saladin Ahmed, [A] Dave Acosta. The Terrorfighters team up with the Terrors to defeat the city’s evil leadership, and the series ends happily. Terrorwar’s premise wasn’t very original, and none of the characters ever developed much of a personality, besides the protagonist and the nonbinary doctor. By contrast, in Star Signs, Saladin had exactly the same amount of space to work with as in Terrorwar, yet he managed to create a much more memorable cast of characters. I plan on writing about Saladin Ahmed’s comics soon, but I don’t plan to say much about Terrorwar.
CANARY #3 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Scott Snyder, [A] Dan Panosian. Of Scott Snyder’s recent Comixology Unlimited comics published by Dark Horse, Canary is probably the worst. The story structure is confusing; it’s hard to figure out how the flashbacks are relevant to the main story. In terms of content, Canary is just a typical Lovecraftian horror story, though the setting, in a Western mining town, is somewhat original. (Note, Canary is not about a massacre of Chinese miners; I thought so for a minute, but I was confusing it with a story from the 2016 Hellboy Winter Special.) Dan Panosian’s artwork is uninteresting, and finally, like all these Snyder miniseries, Canary was published as three issues when it ought to have been six.
RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #2 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Weight of the World,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Luciano Vecchio. Magneto sees a vision of the names of all the people he killed, and then he and Storm confront the Shadow King. At this point I’ve gotten sick of both Ewing and Gillen’s X-Men comics, and I’m mostly reading them because of inertia.
UNDERHEIST #2 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] David Lapham, [W] Maria Lapham. In the aftermath of the heist, things start to go very badly for the main character. Also, a horror element is introduced: the main character remembers having a strange symbol carved into his neck, and he discovers the same symbol on his girlfriend’s neck. David Lapham is a masterful writer of crime comics, but like Mignola, he seems to repeat himself constantly; his stories always have the same tone.
GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-GWEN #1 (Marvel, 2024) – “Something Sinister,” [W] Melissa Flores, [A] Alba Glez. Spider-Gwen and Mary Jane (as Carnage) fight Dr. Octopus’s son. This was a forgettable story. The reason this issue is giant-sized is because it also includes a reprint of Spider-Gwen #13, a comic I already have. Overall I should have skipped buying this comic.
DEEP CUTS #5 (Image, 2024) – “Seeking / Secrets,” [W] Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark, [A] Juni Ba. In the ‘60s, R. Hudson Lowell, a white music writer, pitches a magazine article about Adler Burns, a black free jazz musician. I assume this latter character is based on Ornette Coleman. Besides being a toxic asshole and a drug addict, Lowell has no understanding of free jazz, and he’s only able to write the article by plagiarizing the insights of a black friend. A high point of this issue (no pun intended) is when Lowell listens to Burns’s music while on drugs, and then there’s a psychedelic two-page splash. This sequence demonstrates Juni Ba’s massive talent.
SUBGENRE #4 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Wilfredo Torres. I seem to have missed issue 3. In issue 4, Verve switches between the detective, barbarian and science fiction genres, then his pursuers finally catch up with him, and the issue ends with a text sequence that was allegedly written with AI. The most fascinating thing about this issue is the monologue on the cover, discussing Verve’s appearances throughout Kindt’s various comics. I feel like Subgenre is the Rosetta stone that links all of Kindt’s work together, and I’d like to reread it more carefully.
VALERIAN VOL. 4 (Cinebook, 1971/2012) – “Welcome to Alflolol,” [W] Pierre Christin,
[A] Jean-Claude Mézières. The planet of Technorog, long since abandoned by its former inhabitants, has been colonized by Earth. But the original inhabitants of Technorog, or Alflolol, are not dead, only on vacation, and they return unexpectedly. The Alflololians prefer to live in harmony with nature, and they become a nuisance to the giant corporations who ar trying to exploit the planet’s resources. The Alflololians (whose names are all anagrams of each other) are forced onto a reservation, until they decide they’re sick of their own planet, and they decide to inflict themselves on Earth instead. The French Wikipedia says that this is the most political Valerian album. It’s an obvious environmentalist and anti-capitalist allegory. I suppose the depiction of the Alflololians could be seen as stereotypical, but even so, this comic is still entertaining and politically relevant, more than 50 years after its publication.
THE PHANTOM #1799 (Frew, 2016) – “The Dead River,” [W] Magnus Knutsson, [A] Jaime Vallvé. A river in the jungle has been ruined by pollution. The Phantom investigates and discovers that the pollution is coming from an arms factory, which is manufacturing arms and smuggling them to the neighboring apartheid state of Rodia, in defiance of economic sanctions. The Phantom invades the factory and apprehends its corrupt director. According to the editor of this issue, “The Dead River” was the first Phantom story that explicitly addressed apartheid. The name Rodia is an obvious reference to Rhodesia. This was also the first Phantom story drawn by Jaime Vallvé, who the editors refer to as the defining artist of Team Fantomen.
COMANCHE VOL. 3 (Le Lombard, 1978) – “Les loups de Wyoming,” [W] Michel Greg, [A] Hermann. Comanche’s title character is a female rancher in Wild West-era Wyoming. Her sidekick is Red Dust, a cowboy who looks kind of like another of Hermann’s protagonists, Jeremiah. In this album, Comanche and Red Dust, together with a multiracial group of allies, have to defend their ranch from a brutal bandit gang. I don’t clearly remember the details of this album, but it’s a thrilling adventure story with strong characterization and beautiful draftsmanship. Ironically, there are almost no American Western comics that are as good as European Western comics like Comanche and Blueberry.
HARLEY AND IVY MEET BETTY AND VERONICA #6 (DC, 2018) – untitled, [W] Marc Andreyko & Paul Dini, [A] Laura Braga. There are no real surprises in this issue, but Dini and Andreyko’s story is entertaining and funny. This issue’s cover is by Jen Bartel, who seems to have become exclusively a cover artist. I’ll be surprised if there’s ever another issue of her Image series Blackbird.
CAPTAIN VICTORY AND THE GALACTIC RANGERS #6 (Pacific, 1982) – “Victory is Sacrifice!”, [W/A] Jack Kirby. This comic’s plot is complete nonsense. With regard to the art, there are some good individual panels, but Mike Thibodeaux’s inks make Kirby’s pages look infantile, like something out of a coloring book. There’s a backup story about a shapeshifting alien who impersonates Ronald Reagan. The other backup story is The Missing Man by Ditko. This comic is unusual in that it includes new work by both Kirby and Ditko, though both artists were past their peak when it was published.
GRASS KINGS #12 (Dark Horse, 2018) – unknown, [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Tyler Jenkins. Humbert Jr, the bristly-bearded villain, investigates a murder mystery. This is yet another boring issue whose plot makes no sense. The cover of Subgenre #4 indicates that Verve makes a cameo appearance somewhere in Grass Kings, but I have no idea where.
HOUSE OF SECRETS #13 (Vertigo, 1997) – “The Book of Law: Pfaultz,” [W] Steven T. Seagle, [A] Teddy Kristiansen. This issue is a flashback story, with a one-page epilogue that connects it to the series’ main plot. During the Black Plague, a horrible man named Pfaultz claims to be an imperial official, and he uses his alleged authority to invade people’s houses and rape their attractive daughters. In the end, Pfaultz is revealed to have faked his credentials, and he’s boarded up in a vacant house to starve to death. Pfaultz is a disgusting man with no redeeming qualities, and it’s rather unpleasant to read about him. Also, when Pfaultz is punished, it doesn’t really seem as if justice has triumphed, because the problem is not Pfaultz himself, but his entire world. Pfaultz himself was an impostor, but if his credentials had been legitimate, then his behavior would have been permissible. That is, he’s not punished for committing rape, but only for doing so under false authority. For some reason this issue has an unusual aspect ratio; each page, except the one-page epilogue, has a giant white border at the top and bottom.
BLACK CROWN QUARTERLY #4 (IDW, 2018) – “A Landlord’s Tale,” [W/A] Rob Davis. A short story about the history of the Black Crown bar, drawn in a style resembling that of Paul Grist. There’s also a backup story, drawn by Philip Bond, about some elderly musicians. I enjoyed most of the Black Crown titles, but Black Crown Quarterly was never all that exciting.
SANDMAN #5 (DC, 1989) – “Passengers,” [W] Neil Gaiman, [A] Sam Kieth. Dr. Destiny escapes from Arkham Asylum and forces a woman named Rosemary to drive him to his old hideout. During the car ride, Rosemary and Dr. Destiny form a surprising rapport, and we begin to think that Rosemary will be safe. But as soon as Destiny gets out of the car, he murders Rosemary in cold blood. This is the single most terrifying moment in the entire series. The Rosemary sequence is only six pages, but it seems much longer in my memory, because in just six pages, Gaiman turns her into a realistic and sympathetic character. Issues 5 and 6 were the scariest issues of The Sandman, except issue 14, and even that issue had a substantial humor element. After its first couple years, The Sandman became more of a fantasy comic. There are other nice moments in Sandman #5, including Scott Free’s Kirbyesque dream sequence, and Morpheus’s encounter with J’onn J’onzz.
TARZAN #240 (DC, 1975) – “Tarzan and the Castaways Part 1: Chained Prisoner,” [W] Joe Kubert, [A] Franc Reyes. In an adaptation of ERB’s final completed Tarzan novel, Tarzan is a prisoner aboard a ship. The ship’s crew mutinies, and though Tarzan escapes his cage and defeats the mutiny, the ship crashlands on a desert island. At the end of the issue, we see that there are unfriendly native people on the island. This is a pretty average story, though the combination of Kubert layouts and Reyes pencils is excellent.
SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #77 (DC, 2017) – “Rough Surf,” [W] Ivan Cohen, [A] Randy Elliott, and “The Kraken,” [W] John Rozum, [A] Scott Neely. Two generic Scooby-Doo stories that both have pirates as (fake) villains. The first story has an additional theme of surfing.
DENNIS THE MENACE AND HIS FRIENDS SERIES #23 (Fawcett, 1974) – “Ruff’s Family Tree,” [W] Fred Toole, [A] Al Wiseman, etc. While boarding at a kennel, Ruff talks with various purebred dogs who explain to him what they’ve been bred to do, and Ruff tries to figure out what his own purpose is. This story is reprinted from Dennis the Menace Giant #14. This issue also includes three additional stories focusing on Ruff, but I don’t know whether these stories are reprints or not.
THE PHANTOM #1801 (Frew, 2018) – “The Emperor’s Treasure,” [W] Ulf Granberg, [A] Jaime Vallvé. This story is from 1981, but was never previously published by Frew. While visiting France, the Phantom meets an old college professor of his, and they team up to investigate rumors of Napoleon’s buried Egyptian treasures. This story is fairly entertaining, but I’ve read better treasure hunt stories. Jaime Vallvé’s spotting of blacks is excellent. His style reminds me of Jim Aparo and Don Newton, though perhaps I only think that because they both drew the Phantom too.
GOMER GOOF (GASTON) VOL. 7 (Cinebook, 1968/2017) – “It’s a Van Goof,” [W/A] André Franquin with Jidehem and Yvan Delporte. A series of gag strips about Gaston/Gomer’s bizarre inventions and his interference with the operations of the Journal de Spirou. Gaston is one of the classic French comics, but Cinebook’s version of it is inadequate. First, they changed Gaston’s name to Gomer Goof, as was previously done by Fantagraphics in the ’90s. This name is a poor choice, as Gomer is a ridiculous-sounding name in English, while Gaston is a common name in French. Second, this album doesn’t seem to correspond to any of the French albums. Each Gaston album is a collection of gag strips which were serialized in Spirou magazine. Each gag has a number, and the gags in “It’s a Van Goof” are individually numbered 407 to 444, while in the current edition of the corresponding French album, the gags are numbered from 389 to 424. Some of the gags in the English album are out of numerical order. The gags are interspersed with illustrated text sequences, but the English edition presents these texts in a different order, relative to the gag strips, than the French edition does. These are not trivial matters, as they alter the reader’s experience of the comic. Also, it’s odd that this album is the second album published by Cinebook, while it’s either the sixth or the seventh album in French. Admittedly, Gaston has had a confusing publishing history; there are two different numbering systems for the French albums, and there used to be an urban legend about the existence of a “missing” fifth album. But Dupuis has now established a definitive edition of Gaston, and I don’t know why Cinebook chose not to reprint that edition.
NIGHTHAWK #6 (Marvel, 2016) – untitled, [W] David F. Walker, [A] Ramón Villalobos. Nighthawk stops the race riot, having discovered that Hanrahan, a corrupt real estate developer, instigated the riot in order to drive up property values. The Revelator has already kidnapped Hanrahan and tortured him. Nighthawk fights and defeats the Revelator, then watches Hanrahan die, without lifting a finger to help. This ending is entirely appropriate, since the whole point of Nighthawk is that sometimes violence is the answer to racism. It’s also noteworthy that this series acknowledges how the housing market functions as a vehicle for racism. I just read Thomas Sugrue’s The Origins of the Urban Crisis, and even though I’ve heard of redlining before, I was shocked to learn just how damaging it’s been, even in the North.
NIGHTHAWK #2 (Marvel, 2016) – as above. I accidentally read this out of order. In this issue Nighthawk beats up a corrupt cop, and he investigates the Revelator’s murders of racist white men. As stated in earlier reviews, this Nighthawk series may have been Marvel’s most sophisticated treatment of racial issues. That’s probably why it was cancelled after just six issues, because it was too radical for corporate comics.
GRASS KINGS #13 (Boom!, 2018) – as above. The people of the Grass Kingdom fight an armed engagement against the federal government. There’s also a flashback sequence. One of the many problems with Grass Kings is that the timeline is hard to figure out, because the flashbacks look exactly like the present-day scenes. There are even two different characters named Humbert, one in the present and one in the past.
HARLEY’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK #5 (DC, 2017) – “No Pain, No Sane,” [W] Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti, [A] Neal Adams. In a parody of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, some aliens force Harley to participate in an intergalactic boxing match. This issue is better than a typical Harley Quinn comic, because it’s easier to tell what is being made fun of. Most other Harley Quinn comics are just generic satire with no particular target. Neal Adams’s artwork in this issue is outdated, showing no stylistic evolution relative to his earlier work. I think he reached his artistic peak in the ‘70s, and then after he left comics and came back, he was never as good again.
SUKIA #60 (Zinco, 1981) – “La ofensa” etc., [W] Renzo Barbieri, [A] unknown. I bought this at Heroes Con because it looked fascinating. Sukia, published by Edifumetto from 1978 to 1986, is an example of the Italian erotic horror genre. This genre was developed in the ‘60s by Barbieri himself and Giorgio Cavedon. It was inspired by “black comics” (fumetti neri) like Diabolik and Kriminal, and I assume also by Barbarella. For more on this genre see this article (NSFW). What I have is not an original Sukia comic but a Spanish translation, which is far easier for me to read. Sukia is about a sex-obsessed vampiress and her stereotypical gay sidekick Gary. In this issue’s main story, Sukia and Gary visit a resort so Sukia can look for victims, but there’s already a male vampire at the same resort, and he and Sukia have to fight for territory. In the end, Sukia kills the vampire with an explosive tampon which she hid in the place where tampons normally go. That tells you what sort of story this is. This comic is ridiculous and silly, not to mention homophobic, but it’s also very funny. The artwork is pretty minimal, but it serves its purpose. One notable scene in this issue is when Sukia thinks that the villain can’t be a vampire, because he’s not repelled by the sign of the cross – but then the vampire reveals that the cross doesn’t work on him because he’s Jewish. Compare Uncanny X-Men #159, where Kitty Pryde tries to repel Dracula with a cross, but it doesn’t work because she’s Jewish.
THE PHANTOM #1805 (Frew, 2018) – “Butterfly Man,” [W] Claes Reimerthi, [A] Cesar Spadari. This story’s title character is a criminal who makes loans to other criminals. Some small-time crooks default on a loan to the Butterfly Man, and he has all of them killed except one. The one surviving criminal manages to escape and reach the Phantom’s jungle hospital, and thanks to him, the Phantom apprehends the Butterfly Man. This is a very grim and realistic story that creates a strong sense of fear, and Cesar Spadari’s black-and-white art is excellent, especially his depictions of the Butterfly Man’s wrinkled face. The backup story is a chapter of the serial “Heart of Darkness,” by Reimerthi and Joan Boix.
GRASS KINGS #8 (Boom!, 2017) – as above. This issue is a flashback sequence depicting the past history of Pike, an Inuit man living in the Grass Kingdom. Pike’s history is interesting, but not really relevant to the main plot of the series (to the extent that the series has a plot).
INSEXTS #11 (Aftershock, 2017) – “Violent Ends,” [W] Marguerite Bennett, [A] Ariela Kristantina. The protagonists resolve the mystery of the kidnapped female artists, and then they board a ship to New York. This is the final isuse. Insexts isn’t great, but I like it better than Animosity or DC Comics Bombshells, both of which lasted much longer.
SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL #12 (DC, 2017) – “Maybe. Also. Dead,” [W] Cecil Castellucci, [A] Marley Zarcone. This issue has some interesting psychedelic art, but I have no idea what was going on in its plot. I liked this series at first, but I quickly lost interest in it, even though I kept buying it until the end. I believe this was the final issue prior to Milk Wars, after which the series became Shade the Changing Woman.
DENNIS THE MENACE GIANT #51 (Fawcett, 1967) – various stories, [W] Fred Toole, [A] Owen Fitzgerald and/or Al Wiseman. A large number of Christmas-themed stories. In one of them, Dennis manages to convince a department store to send Christmas presents to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Who paid for the presents is not mentioned. In another of the stories, Dennis and his parents go to a medieval-themed restaurant. I did not know that they had medieval-themed restaurants in 1967. I assumed they were a recent phenomenon. This story mentions the medieval custom of serving boar’s head at Christmas. I honestly don’t understand how you can eat boar’s head. Where on the head is the meat located?
TARZAN #243 (DC, 1975) – “Tarzan and the Castaways Part 4: Temple of the Virgins,” [W] Joe Kubert, [A] Rudy Florese. The people of the island, who are descended from the ancient Mayans, have kidnapped one of Tarzan’s fellow castaways, and they’re planning to sacrifice her. Of course Tarzan rescues her, and then he and the other castaways are picked up by a passing ship. Even though this issue has a different artist from #240, both issues look very similar, since Kubert did the layouts for both. It annoys me when people talk about the Mayas as if they’re extinct. There are millions of Maya people living today, including about half the people in Guatemala.
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #10 (DC, 2017) – “The Queen of Nothing,” [W] Gerard Way & Jon Rivera, [A] Michael Avon Oeming. Cave, his daughter, and Wild Dog travel throuhg the underworld, until Cave discovers that someone has apparently resurrected his dead wife. This was one of the better Young Animal titles, but as with Shade the Changing Woman, I gradually lost interest in it. I think the main problem was that I don’t like Oeming’s art style. But I do like this comic’s adventure elements.
ACTION COMICS #420 (DC, 1973) – “The Made-to-Order Menace!”, [W] Elliot S! Maggin, [A] Curt Swan. A frustrated would-be TV personality is trying to get on the Johnny Nevada show (i.e. the Johnny Carson show). His big idea is to get Superman to appear on the show, and he and Superman both get caught up in a complicated plot involving an alien minstrel. There’s a scene in this issue where Clark Kent goes to a restaurant and orders filet mignon with ketchup. Can you imagine anyone having such awful taste as to put ketchup on steak? This issue also has a Human Target backup story by Wein and Giordano, in which the plot twist is that the Human Target’s client is actually the killer.
SAVAGE HENRY #18 (Rip Off, 1991) – “Motive,” [W/A] Matt Howarth. Matt Howarth is a very prolific artist, but I’ve never gotten into his work. Savage Henry appears to be an adventure story starring some musicians. This issue includes a guest appearance by the Residents, a real-life band – or at least they’re alleged to be a band, though their members’ names are unknown. This issue also includes some comic strips that are reviews of experimental music albums. Matt Howarth’s interest in experimental music is the one aspect of his work that stands out to me, other than his obsessive cross-hatching.
COMMON GROUNDS #2 (Top Cow, 2004) – “Roles,” [W] Troy Hickman, [A] Ethan Van Sciver, and “Elsewhere,” [W] Troy Hickman, [A] Dan Jurgens. This series evolved from an earlier fan comic, Holey Crullers, which I read about in Wizard Magazine a long time ago. Both Holey Crullers and Common Grounds are set in a donut shop that caters to superheroes. This issue begins with a very disturbing story in which a woman’s car is hijacked by a rapist. She manages to get out okay, but even so, this story exploits a trauma that often occurs to women, purely for the sake of entertainment. I think it’s fine for men to write about male violence against women, but only if they have some serious purpose, and this story had no purpose. In the backup story, a superhero is looking for his mentor, who is trapped in a microworld located on a donut. Unfortunately, this story’s twist was spoiled in the same Wizard article where I learned about Holey Crullers. Overall I disliked this issue, and I won’t be reading any more of this series.
Back to Heroes on about March 23:
NIGHTWING #112 (DC, 2024) – “This is What Our Family Does” (my title), [W] Tom Taylor, [A] Sami Basri. Dick teams up with Batman to track down the killer and rescue the little boy who has Nightwing on his pencil case. The story begins with a flashback where Bruce impresses on Dick the need to avoid using violence. There’s also a touching conversation between Bruce and Gar Logan, neither of whom is actually a protagonist in this series, and yet this scene doesn’t feel out of place. The two-parter in issues 111 and 112 is a small masterpiece. Through his depiction of Dick’s quest to save a kidnapped orphan, Taylor gives us another powerful demonstration of who Dick is and what motivates him.
TRANSFORMERS #6 (Image, 2024) – “The Touch” (my title), [W/A] Daniel Warren Johnson. In DWJ’s final issue as artist, Optimus defeats the giant Constructicon Devastator in an epic battle, and Spike wakes up to find his father missing. A very clever and memorable thing in this issue is that when Optimus is fighting Devastator, there’s text in the background that says AW YEAH / YOU KNOW THE SONG. This song is not explicitly identified, but the reader is expected to realize that it’s “The Touch” by Stan Bush. The whole fight scene in this issue is an allusion to the climactic fight scene in Transformers: The Movie, where Optimus singlehandedly defeats a Decepticon army while “The Touch” plays in the background. Without having to pay for the rights to this song, Johnson makes the reader hear it in their memory. Of course the only readers who will know this song are readers like me who grew up with Transformers: The Movie, and this reinforces my sense that Image’s Energon Universe is mostly aimed at nostalgic older fans. Another reference to Transformers: The Movie is that the issue ends with the note “Thank you for the inspiration, Peter!”, referring to Optimus Prime’s voice actor, Peter Cullen.
ABBOTT 1979 #5 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Saladin Ahmed, [A] Sami Kivelä. By drawing on the power of Detroit’s diverse residents, Elena defeats the Umbra and saves the city, and she and Amelia become a couple again. The message of this ending is that Detroit’s strength comes from its diversity. I’m going to pay careful attention to this scene when I write about Abbott at greater length. I just read Thomas Sugrue’s The Origins of the Urban Crisis, about the decline of Detroit, and Abbott serves as sort of a counternarrative to the story of Detroit’s collapse that’s told in that book. One panel in this issue is set in Chaldean Town. This is a neighborhood that essentially no longer exists, though there’s one surviving Iraqi restaurant there that I’d like to visit if I get the chance.
POWER PACK: INTO THE STORM #3 (Marvel, 2024) – “Fault”, [W] Louise Simonson, [A] June Brigman. Franklin survives, obviously, and uses his dream form to summon Storm to help. He was looking for Wolverine and Kitty, but they were unavailable. I’m not sure why, since this story is set in the past, so there are no continuity concerns. Franklin is unconscious for the entirety of this and the following issue. Franklin’s dream powers may have been introduced in order to allow him to contribute to Power Pack’s adventures, despite being young enough that he still needed to sleep quite a lot.
DARK RIDE #11 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Andrei Bressan. While on the Devil’s Due ride, Sam is subjected to visions of his traumatic past. We see that he’s spent his life futilely seeking his father’s approval, while neglecting his own child. Sam manages to survive and makes it back to the park, but then his father announces his intentions to sacrifice his entire family to a demon, unless they make a Sophie’s Choice. This has been a fantastic series, and I’m sorry there’s just one issue left.
MS. MARVEL: MUTANT MENACE #1 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada, [A] Scott Godlewski. Ms. Marvel is still being persecuted by Orchis, and she’s still hanging out underground with the fugitive X-Men. Early in the issue there’s a gratuitous Deadpool cameo appearance. Kamala fights the four evil old ladies from issue 3 of Hickman’s X-Men – I had totally forgotten about these characters until now. Then Lila Cheney kidnaps Kamala and takes her to a concert. Vellani and Pirzada are not the best writers Kamala has had, but they’re doing a fairly good job. The main problem with their Ms. Marvel is her unnecessary connection with the X-Men, when she seems like more of an Avengers character.
ADVENTUREMAN: GHOST LIGHTS #2 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Matt Fraction, [A] Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson. Claire’s sisters use the remaining supply of potion to save Claire and Tommy, but somehow their battle damages the fabric of reality, and they all find themselves an Art Deco retrofuturist alternate universe. It was really nice seeing Adventureman again, but I don’t understand why the series was only revived for two more issues. I hope we get more Adventureman soon. BTW, I just realized Adventureman reminds me a lot of Tom Strong.
TITANS #9 (DC, 2024) – “Dark-Winged Queen Part 2,” [W] Tom Taylor, [A] Lucas Meyer. The Titans continue to suffer from unpopularity, and Trigon teams up with Amanda Waller to persecute the Titans further. This was only an average issue. I wish Taylor would focus more on the Titans’ lives out of costume, as Wolfman and Pérez did.
MAN’S BEST #1 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Pornsak Pichetshote, [A] Jesse Lonergan. A spaceship crashlands on a hostile planet, and the crew’s pets, two dogs and a cat, have to survive in a hostile environment. I’m excited about Man’s Best because I love Jesse Lonergan’s art, and because I loved We3, which Man’s Best is clearly based on. This first issue is a little disappointing; like Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea, it fails to take sufficient advantage of Lonergan’s incredible page design skills. But I’m still looking forward to reading more of Man’s Best.
FANTASTIC FOUR #18 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Secret of Franklin Richards,” [W] Ryan North, [A] Carlos Gomez. This story takes place on the one day a year when Franklin activates his full, godlike powers in order to prevent future threats to Earth. Franklin predicts that the world is going to be destroyed by asteroids, and he tries to prevent it, but an old villain, Agatha Harkness’s son Nicholas Scratch, undoes Franklin’s attempt to save the world. Despite this, the FF combine their powers in order to prevent the asteroid storm anyway. FF is currently Marvel’s best comic, with the possible exception of She-Hulk. It’s notable that in this issue, Alicia is the one who comes up with the unexpected solution. Ryan has been writing Alicia better than perhaps any other writer ever. He’s turned her from a helpless damsel-in-distress into an active participant in the FF’s adventures.
I went to another Charlotte Comic Con on March 24:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #104 (Marvel, 1972) – “The Beauty and the Brute,” [W] Roy Thomas, [A] Gil Kane. In the Savage Land, Spider-Man and Ka-Zar team up against Kraven and Gog. This Tarzanesque jungle story was a major departure from Spider-Man’s usual urban adventures, and that’s why this story is a classic. Gil Kane’s art is, of course, incredible. A fun moment in this issue is the end, where JJJ is genuinely sad at Peter’s apparent death, and then when Peter turns up alive, JJJ gets angry at him.
THANOS QUEST #1 (Marvel, 1991) – “Schemes and Dreams,” [W] Jim Starlin, [A] Ron Lim. In the prequel to Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos goes looking for the Soul Gems, which he renames the Infinity Gems. He obtains the first three of them from the In-Betweener, the Champion of the Universe and the Gardener. I’ve been reading Jim Starlin’s comics for decades – Infinity War #1 was one of the first comic books I ever read – but I’ve never read Thanos Quest. Therefore, reading this comic was both entertaining and nostalgic. I think Starlin peaked in the ‘70s, but Infinity Gauntlet was perhaps his last genuinely classic work.
TALES OF SUSPENSE #60 (Marvel, 1964) – Iron Man: “Suspected of Murder!”, [W] Stan Lee, [A] Don Heck. Because of his heart condition, Tony is forced to become Iron Man full-time. As a result, Tony’s friends and relatives suspect that Tony is dead and that Iron Man killed him. Also, Tony battles Hawkeye, who makes only his second appearance in this issue. As Brian Cronin documents here, Tony’s heart disease was a major plot point in the character’s early years, but it ceased to be so after about Iron Man #18. Captain America: “The Army of Assassins Strikes!”, [W] Stan Lee, [A] Jack Kirby. Cap and Rick Jones battle the Red Skull’s goons. This story has excellent art, of course, but only a generic plot.
CRIME DOES NOT PAY #62 (Lev Gleason, 1948) – “Frank Scarnici,” [W] Charles Biro & Bob Wood?, [A] George Tuska, etc. This comic is in such bad condition that I can barely remove it from its bag, and it still cost $12. That’s normal for a comic this old. In this issue’s first story, an assassin moves from Springfield, Massachusetts to New York, where he goes on a criminal rampage until he winds up in the electric chair. The next two stories are about William Nevinson, a real 17th-century highwayman, and Billy the Kid. The fourth story is a whodunit in which the reader is invited to compete with a detective in solving a murder mystery. The last story is about “Leo Hall: The Man Without Conscience; Mercy; Honor; Human Decency.” In most of these stories, the reader is invited to sympathize with the criminal rather than the police, and the criminal’s temporary freedom from social constraints is presented as being a fair tradeoff for his inevitable death. This glorification of crime is what makes Crime Does Not Pay enjoyable, and it’s also why the series was targeted by the Comics Code. Of course, the title of the series is ironic.
FOUR COLOR #422 (Dell, 1952) – “The Gilded Man,” [W/A] Carl Barks. Donald and Gladstone both travel to Guyana (then known as British Guiana) to look for a certain rare stamp. Donald and his nephews discover that the only remaining specimen of the stamp is in the lost Indian city of El Dorado. The ducks manage to find El Dorado and recover the stamp, but the adventure does not end there, because the stamp is attached to an envelope, and the envelope has to be delivered to the person who was supposed to have received it in 1856. “The Gilded Man” is a thrilling adventure story, though it does include some stereotypical depictions of Indians. This story combines the dubious legend of El Dorado with the real-life story of the British Guiana 1c magenta stamp. El Dorado is usually claimed to have been in Colombia, but there were some attempts to look for it in Guyana, and Barks must have set “The Gilded Man” in Guyana in order to introduce the additional element of the stamp. In later years, Barks would use Scrooge rather than Donald as the protagonist of treasure-hunt stories like this one.
CAPTAIN ATOM #82 (Charlton, 1966) – “Captain Atom vs. the Ghost,” [W] Dave Kaler, [A] Steve Ditko. This is the first appearance of Nightshade, Charlton’s major female superhero. In this issue she and Captain Atom team up against the Ghost, who greatly resembles the later Marvel villain of the same name. Nightshade and Captain Atom also accidentally discover each other’s secret identities. Nightshade has never had her own solo series, either at Charlton or DC. Her most notable DC appearances were in Ostrander’s Suicide Squad.
STRANGE ADVENTURES #212 (DC, 1968) – “The Fatal Call of Vengeance,” [W/A] Neal Adams. Cleveland Brand joins Deadman’s old circus, and Deadman, in Cleveland’s body, fights a cruel lion tamer who he suspects of being the Hook. At the end of the story, the circus strongman, Tiny, is seemingly killed. This is a rather generic Deadman story, though Neal’s artwork is excellent. The backup story is “The Man with the Op-Art Eyes,” drawn by Lee Elias. I now have Strange Adventures #207 to #216, so I’m only missing the first two issues with Deadman stories.
20TH CENTURY MEN #1 (Image, 2022) – untitled, [W] Deniz Camp. This series got a lot of positive publicity when it came out, and I regret that I didn’t read it at that time. 20th Century Boys is set in an alternate universe version of 1987, where humans in battlesuits are used as weapons in the war in Afghanistan. 20th Century Men has striking artwork and a politically sophisticated plot. However, this first issue seems tediously long. I bought both issues 1 and 2 at the March convention, but I haven’t read #2 yet.
FEAR #10 (Marvel, 1972) – “Man-Thing!”, [W] Gerry Conway, [A] Howard Chaykin. (The credits page lists Gray Morrow and Chaykin in that order, but the GCD says that Chaykin was the penciler and Morrow was the inker.) This was Man-Thing’s first appearance as an ongoing feature. It continues from Astonishing Tales #13, which I do not have. In this story Man-Thing rescues an abandoned baby and punishes its abusive father. This issue’s other new story, “The Spell of the Sea Witch!!” by Allyn Brodsky and Jack Katz, is about pirates who are condemned to immortality because of stolen Native American gold. This exact same plot element was also used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. As far as I can tell, no one else has noticed this connection.
FLAMING CARROT COMICS #11 (Renegade, 1986) – “State of Siege,” [W/A] Bob Burden. My copy of this issue is signed by Bob Burden. This issue has a typical absurdist plot where America is taken over by Communists. Flaming Carrot is one of those comics that are difficult to review because every issue is similar to every other – in this case, the point of similarity is that every issue is completely absurd.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #136 (Marvel, 1974) – “The Green Goblin Lives Again!”, [W] Gerry Conway, [A] Ross Andru. This is Harry Osborn’s first appearance as the Green Goblin. At this point the original Green Goblin had only been dead for about a year, and the memory of Norman and Gwen’s deaths was very recent. Peter and Harry’s first battle is tragic because Peter is fighting his own best friend. J.M. DeMatteis wrote two classic stories, in Spectacular Spider-Man #189 and #200, that explored their relationship further.
TOM STRONG #32 (ABC, 2005) – “The Black Blade of the Barbary Coast,” [W] Michael Moorcock, [A] Jerry Conway. Michael Moorcock has inspired a large number of comic books, but he’s also written some of them, starting at least as early as 1964 (Karl the Viking). This issue is an adventure story in which Tom teams up with the Rose, one of Moorcock’s recurring characters. The villain is Captain Zodiac, who resembles Elric and appears to be his descendant; at the climax of the story, Captain Zodiac obtains a sword that’s obviously Stormbringer, and he says that only someone of his bloodline can wield it. This comic is interesting, though it feels kind of ordinary, while Alan Moore’s Tom Strong stories were always extraordinary.
THE WALKING DEAD #127 (Image, 2014) – untitled, [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Charlie Adlard. I bought a bunch of these at the convention for about 50 cents each. I like to collect The Walking Dead because it’s such a long series, and because each issue can be read very fast. This issue is longer than normal. It takes place two years after the previous issue, which was the conclusion of All-Out War. In the first half of the issue, we watch some of Rick’s people diverting a zombie herd, and then we witness a typical day in Rick’s realm of Alexandria. The issue ends on an ominous note, as we see Carl talking to the imprisoned Negan.
THUNDERBOLTS #161 (Marvel, 2011) – untitled (Fear Itself crossover), [W] Jeff Parker, [A] Declan Shalvey. I also bought a number of issues of this Thunderbolts run at the convention. In this issue the Thunderbolts save Chicago from being nuked, and then Chicago is invaded by a horde of humanoid lake monsters. This entire issue consists of fight scenes, but Jeff Parker has the rare skill of combining fight scenes with characterization. Just as in Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, the characters in Parker’s Thunderbolts are so unique that their personalities tend to come out even (or especially) when they’re fighting.
ONCE UPON THE END OF THE WORLD #13 (Boom!, 2024) – “Too Tired to Die,” [W] Jason Aaron, [A] Nick Dragotta w/ Alexandre Tefenkgi. Maceo and Mezzy team up to defeat the raiders, but all of Mezzy’s rats get killed. Then as Maceo and Mezzy head toward Golgonooza, Maceo’s two friends are killed in a volcanic eruption. We begin to suspect that Maceo and Mezzy are the only two living people in the world – except the villains, who are determined to kill themselves and everyone else. Even if Maceo and Mezzy do manage to save the day, is there anything left for them to save?
STRANGE TALES #157 (Marvel, 1967) – Nick Fury: “Crisis!”, [W/A] Jim Steranko. Nick begins his epic battle with Baron Strucker, which concludes in the following issue. Steranko’s page layouts and camera angles in this story are so dynamic and creative that they’ve rarely been matched, even today, and there’s also one very striking splash page that uses a collage technique. It’s too bad that Steranko’s entire career was compressed into about four years, and that he’s turned into such an awful bigot. Dr. Strange: “The End of the Ancient One!”, [W] Stan Lee, [A] Marie Severin. Dr. Strange fights a giant creature called Zom, and the Living Tribunal appears for the first time on the final page. This story is not bad, but it pales in comparison to the Steranko story.
TALES OF THE BEANWORLD #9 (Eclipse, 1988) – “A Gift! A Gift Comes!”, [W/A] Larry Marder. Dreamishness prophesies that the Beans are about to be given a gift. A strange bulb emerges from Gran’Ma’Pa, which turns out to be a Pod’l’Pool containing Cuties, i.e. infant Beans. Beanworld is like nothing else in American comics before or since.
GHOST MONEY #1 (Lion Forge, 2007/2017) – “The Lady of Dubai Part 1,” [W] Thierry Smolderen, [A] Dominique Bertail. In a flashback sequence set in the 2000s, American soldiers try to figure out what happened to Al Qaeda’s money. In an alternate version of the 2020s, a rich woman named Chamza rescues a woman named Lindsey from a riot. Then Chamza takes Lindsey on a series of escapades, and we learn that Chamza is from Tajikistan, and is presumably connected to the stolen money somehow. Ghost Money is mostly a political thriller, with some science fiction elements. It has very sophisticated writing and excellent art. I have three more issues of Ghost Money, but I haven’t read them yet, because they tend to take a long time to read. This is a consistent problem with European comics reprinted in comic book format – they take much longer to read than domestic American comic books.
IRON MAN #27 (Marvel, 1970) – “The Fury of the Firebrand!”, [W] Archie Goodwin, [A] Don Heck. Iron Man arrives in Bay City to attend the groundbreaking of a new community center in a black neighborhood. But Bay City is embroiled in racial strife, and a group of black radicals, led by a masked villain called Firebrand, are trying to destroy Stark’s new building. Eventually, Tony figures out that the community center project was not a genuine attempt at urban renewal, but was sponsored by white property developers for their own enrichment. This story touches on some of the same themes as Nighthawk, though it’s not nearly as radical. Firebrand’s face is never seen in this story, and it’s not clear whether he’s a black militant himself, or a white man who’s trying to embarrass the real black militants. Archie Goodwin never used this character again. When he reappeared in issue 48, written by Mike Friedrich, he was clearly shown to be a white man, and his involvement with black radicalism was not mentioned.
MACHINE MAN #7 (Marvel, 1978) – “With a Nation Against Him!”, [W/A] Jack Kirby. Machine Man appears before a government panel that’s been tasked with deciding whether or not to have him destroyed. Conversely, some criminals are trying to kidnap Machine Man in order to make duplicates of him. This issue has some resemblance to the Star Trek: Next Generation episode “The Measure of a Man.” Page 23 of this issue has a page layout that’s very unusual for Kirby: there are eight panels, most of which have non-rectangular borders.
DARK SPACES: DUNGEON #4 (IDW, 2024) – untitled, [W] Scott Snyder, [A] Hayden Sherman. Tyler and Madoc meet the mother of another of the killer’s other victims. She reveals that the killer has been sending her letters showing how her son’s life would have turned out if he were alive. Then Tyler and Madoc discover another of the dungeons. I will have much more to say about this series when I get to issue 5.
YOUNG ROMANCE #206 (DC, 1975) – “I’m the Girl You’ve Been Looking For!”, [W] unknown, [A] Frank Bolle. Connie has to choose between her wealthy boss, Len Koppel, and her poor boyfriend Larry, but Len makes the decision for her by asking her to marry him. This story is kind of creepy because of the power diferential between Len and Connie. “Hitch-Hiker,” [A] Win Mortimer. A girl gets picked up by hitchhikers who turn out to be kidnappers. “Hitch-Hiker” is unusual because it’s not really a romance story at all, it’s more of a cautionary tale. It’s also a rare example of a romance comic that acknowledges that women might have good reason to be afraid of strange men. As I’m writing this, the meme du jour is that women would prefer to meet a bear in the woods, rather than a man.
STAR-SPANGLED WAR STORIES #137 (DC, 1968) – War That Time Forgot: “Fight to the Last!”, [W] Howard Liss, [A] Joe Kubert. A submarine crash-lands on an island full of dinosaurs. There’s also a subplot about a rivalry between two soldiers. This story is memorable because of Kubert’s beautiful dinosaur art. The War That Time Forgot is based on the same stupid-but-cool idea as this Calvin & Hobbes strip. The two backup stories, drawn by Jack Sparling and Jerry Grandenetti, are much more conventional.
EERIE #70 (Warren, 1975) – Coffin: “The Final Sunrise,” [W] Budd Lewis, [A] José Ortiz. Coffin – an undead man who just wants to die – helps some Kiowa Indians save themselves from American soldiers. In this story, unlike in most Western comics, the writer’s sympathy is with the Indians rather than the whites. There’s even a monologue where the narrator criticizes the traditional cowboys-and-Indians and Thanksgiving-dinner myths. Hunter II: “Goblin Thrust,” [W] Budd Lewis, [A] Paul Neary. Hunter leads some warriors in a hopeless battle against mutants. Unfortunately Paul Neary just passed away. Hunter is my favorite work of his. “Code Name: Slaughter Five,” [W] Gerry Boudreau, [A] Leopoldo Sanchez. In a dystopian overpopulated America, the government is trying to start a revolution in order to reduce the population. The story’s protagonist infiltrates a revolutionary group for this purpose, but ends up converting to their cause. However, the protagonist and the revolutionaries all get killed by a starving mob. When this comic came out, there were widespread fears about overpopulation, possibly due to Paul Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb. However, that book’s predictions did not materialize. El Cid: “Crooked Mouth,” [W] Budd Lewis, [A] Gonzalo Mayo. A highly inaccurate retelling of the Spanish legend of El Cid, with some beautiful artwork. Budd Lewis seems to have thought that “Cid” was a name rather than a title. Also, he uses the name “Minaya” to refer to the Cid’s enemy García Ordóñez, rather than the Cid’s sidekick Álvar Fáñez. “Oogie and the Junkers,” [W] Bill DuBay, [A] Leopoldo Sanchez. An alien creature kidnaps a spaceman and his mistress in order to make them relive the adventures of Buck Blaster (i.e. Flash Gordon). This one is very silly.
SPIDER-BOY #5 (Marvel, 2024) – “Best Friends ForNever,” [W] Dan Slott, [A] Paco Medina. Bailey’s friend Christina goes looking for him, but she and Bailey are both kidnapped by Hellifino on behalf of Madame Monstrosity. There’s also a backup story in which Madame Monstrosity tries and fails to impress the High Evolutionary.
LIFE ZERO #1 (Ablaze, 2022) – untitled, [W] Stefano Vietti, [A] Marco Checchetto. During a zombie apocalypse, an imprisoned former soldier is rescued by his former comrades. I’m willing to read almost any European comic in translation, but this comic’s writing didn’t make any impression on me, and I thought the art was too computerized.
BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #13 (DC, 2023) – “Elementary Chapter 1: The Facts of the Case,” [W] Mark Waid, [A] Dan Mora. Simon Stagg has been murdered! Yay! But the prime suspect is Stagg’s bodyguard Metamorpho. Batman, Superman and Jimmy Olsen investigate, and Jimmy somehow decides that Bruce Wayne is the real culprit. Metamorpho stories are always very fun because of the vexed relationship between Rex, Stagg, Sapphire and Java.
BATMAN/DYLAN DOG #1 (DC, 2024) – “The Shadow of the Bat,” [W] Roberto Recchioni, [A] Gigi Cavenago & Werther Dell’Edera. Batman and Dylan Dog have to combine forces to rescue Catwoman and Groucho from the Joker and Xabaras. This is a tremendously fun comic, with thrilling artwork and engaging story. It’s extremely long at 80 pages per issue, but there are only a few panels per page, so the length doesn’t feel excessive. This comic is also a good introduction to the Bonelli style for Italian readers. The creators are all Italian, and the comic feels like a Dylan Dog comic guest-starring Batman, rather than vice versa. But the writer provides ample background information, so readers unfamiliar with Dylan Dog won’t feel lost. I’ve read a bit of Dylan Dog, but this comic taught me things about him I didn’t know – for instance, I hadn’t heard of Xabaras before. There have been at least two other DC/Bonelli crossovers – Flash/Zagor and Nathan Never/Justice League – and I hope that the others will be published in English soon.
SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK #7 (Marvel, 1989) – “I Have No Mouth, and I Am Mean!”, [W/A] John Byrne. This is perhaps Byrne’s funniest story title ever. The title refers to this issue’s villain, Xemnu the Titan. The guest stars are Ulysses Archer and his wife, from the forgotten series U.S.1. This is a fairly entertaining issue, except that it introduces a character named Enilwen who’s a very mean-spirited parody of Len Wein. Len was known for collecting teddy bears, and Enilwen is a giant bearded toddler who’s obsessed with teddy bears. This was not the only time John used a fellow creator as a character; another example was Alden Maas from Fantastic Four #263 and #264. But Alden Maas was more excusable than Enilwen, since he was a parody of Neal’s crackpot scientific ideas, while Enilwen is just an insult to Len Wein’s personality and habits. Byrne himself was later subjected to the same treatment, when Erik Larsen depicted him in Savage Dragon as Johnny Redbeard.
HERO FOR HIRE #11 (Marvel, 1973) – “Where There’s Life…!”, [W] Steve Englehart, [A] George Tuska & Billy Graham. Luke battles Señor Suerte, a stereotypical Latin American villain. This issue is fun, but it’s also an example of two different types of ‘sploitation at once. Señor Suerte is not to be confused with Señor Mágico from the 2016 Power Man and Iron Fist series. Billy Graham and George Tuska are both part of this year’s Hall of Fame class. I tend to think of George Tuska as a boring artist, but I guess he’s kind of like Frank Robbins or Ross Andru, in that his work is extremely solid even if it’s not flashy. Also, he had a large body of work in pre-Code comics, and supposedly he once punched Bob Powell.
ZAWA + THE BELLY OF THE BEAST #5 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Michael Dialynas. Zawa is unable to prevent the volcanic eruption, and Mesa’s Boon is destroyed, though all its inhabitants survive. Many years later, the now-grown protagonists return to the island and beg the current incarnation of Zawa to let humans live there again, and it seems like she’ll say yes. This was a really fun series, whose premise can be described as “what if Cookie Monster was a volcano goddess?” Earlier this week I saw the exciting news that the fourth volume of Wynd is coming out sometime soon.
THE WALKING DEAD #128 (Image, 2014) – “After All This Time, She Should Be More Prepared,” as #127 above. Andrea interviews some strangers who have just moved into Alexandria, and there’s mutual distrust on both sides. Rick agrees to let Carl move to a settlement further away. This is a slice-of-life issue with just one short action scene.
BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES #4 (IDW, 2024) – “A Dark Day in Woodbrook,” [W/A] Patrick Horvath. Sam has identified a mouse named Nigel as the killer. In an unwise move, Sam confronts Nigel directly. Nigel already knows about Sam’s previous crimes, and he digs up the buried body parts of Sam’s victims and places them in Sam’s store. This ensures that Sam will be suspected of the murders she didn’t commit, as well as the ones she actually did. Besides the Richard Scarry gimmick, this series is interesting because it’s a murder mystery where the detective is also a murderer. I’m sure this isn’t a new idea, I just don’t know of any earlier examples of it.
I HATE FAIRYLAND #12 (Image, 2024) – “The Billy Goats Gert,” [W] Skottie Young, [A] Brett Bean. A retelling of the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, with the twist that the fourth goat is Gert, and the other three goats have hired her to assassinate the troll. Most of this story is narrated in picture book format, rather than with traditional panels and word balloons. Prior to reading this issue, I had more or less forgotten the folktale it’s based on.
HELEN OF WYNDHORN #1 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Tom King, [A] Bilquis Evely. Our protagonist is the orphaned, alcoholic daughter of C.K. Cole, a pulp fiction writer. C.K. Cole is obviously based on Robert E. Howard, though he also resembles H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In 1935, after her father’s early death, young Helen is contacted by a governess, Lilith Appleton, who brings Helen to her grandfather’s mansion, Wyndhorn. At night, Helen sneaks out of the house and is attacked by a monster, but she’s saved by her grandfather, who looks like an elderly Conan. This comic is a fascinating tribute to old pulp fiction, and it’s full of beautiful art. Helen of Wyndhorn is Tom King’s most exciting comic in some time, though he does have an unfortunate record of taking good ideas and running them into the ground.
LE CONCOMBRE MASQUE VOL. 8 (Dupuis, 1990) – “La Dimension poznave,” [W/A] Nikita Mandryka. This series has a very long and confusing publishing history. It seems to be mostly a gag strip about an anthropomorphic cucumber. This album was published 25 years into the series’ run, and it has more of an adventure plot, about two mischievous kids who explore an alternate dimension created by two mad scientists. The plot follows an absurdist, dreamlike logic which reminds me of Philémon or Olivier Rameau. Mandryka’s art is a notable example of the masking effect, in that the characters are drawn in a cartoony style, while the backgrounds are drawn with highly detailed linework. Overall this comic was interesting, but I suspect it was not the best place to start with this creator.
FELIX THE CAT #5 (Harvey, 1992) – “The Pied Piper” etc., [W/A] Otto Messmer. Two reprinted stories from the 1950s. In the first story, Felix goes hunting (with a gun, not his claws) and then becomes a plumber. The second story guest-stars three “merry midgets” that look similar to Snow White’s dwarves. These Harvey reprints are a cost-effective alternative to the original Toby Press comics.
THUNDERBOLTS #171 (Marvel, 2012) – “How Songbird Got Her Groove Back,” [W] Jeff Parker, [A] Kev Walker. Songbird goes to Tahiti and strikes up a romance with a hot guy, but it turns out that he’s an agent of Dr. Lemuel Dorcas, an old enemy of Namor. This is a fun self-contained story, and it includes some well-drawn sea monsters.
BONE ORCHARD: TENEMENT #10 (Image, 2024) – “The End,” [W] Jeff Lemire, [A] Andrea Sorrentino. Felix tries to sacrifice Isaac again. Justin gives up his own life so that Isaac’s mother can escape. She kills Felix and escapes with her son, and the two of them are the only survivors. This was a satisfying conclusion. Andrea Sorrentino was recently accused of using AI in his artwork on Batman. I hope this isn’t true, because an artist of his caliber ought to know better. Now I’m suspicious that some of the pages in Bone Orchard: Tenement #10 may have been AI-generated as well.
IMMORTAL THOR #8 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Last Judgment,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Ibraim Roberson. Thor confronts his neglectful mother Gaea, who tells him a story about her primordial origins. Gaea’s flashback scene is somewhat reminiscent of Ewing’s Defenders Beyond miniseries. Then Thor goes to confront Dario Agger. The first eight issues of Immortal Thor were just okay. It was only with issue 9 that the series got really good.
THOR #195 (Marvel, 1972) – “In the Shadow of Mangog!”, [W] Gerry Conway, [A] John Buscema. Odin sends Thor and the Warriors Three to the Well at World’s End, named after a novel by William Morris. Meanwhile, Asgard is invaded by the Mangog. This issue also introduces four elderly Asgardians named Khan, Bulwar, Rongor and Whitemane. These characters never appeared again after issue 198. John Buscema’s art in this issue is excellent, despite the efforts of the inker-who-must-not-be-named.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #19 (Tower, 1968) – “Half an Hour of Power!”, [W] Ralph Reese, [A] Wally Wood, etc. SPIDER creates android duplicates of the THUNDER Agents and uses them to fake the Chief’s death. There are also four other stories, the last of which continues onto the back cover. In the third story, the villainess Satana and her “all-girl gang” battle the female members of the THUNDER Squad. This is a pretty good issue, but sadly it was more or less the end of the series. There was an issue 20, but it consisted of reprints, with just five new pages.
WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES #232 (Dell, 1960) – “Under the Polar Ice,” [W/A] Carl Barks. Donald and the nephews travel in a submarine to the North Pole, where they almost get lost. There’s a running gag where Donald is forced to peel larger and larger amounts of potatoes. Backup features include Scamp, Chip ‘n’ Dale, and Mickey Mouse. As usual, only the Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse stories are any good. The Scamp story is an example of the old cliché where a dog steals a string of sausages. I have never actually seen sausages sold this way.
ALL-STAR WESTERN #4 (DC, 1971) – Outlaw: “No Coffin for a Killer!”, [W] Robert Kanigher, [A] Gil Kane. Outlaw’s Mexican foster sister, Paloma, is abducted by another outlaw named King Cotton. Again Outlaw has to save her without being captured by his own father. Gil Kane was a masterful Western artist. I think the first Gil Kane comic I ever read was a Western story – the Two-Gun Kid story in Marvel Comics Presents #116. El Diablo: “Satan with Spurs!”, [W] Robert Kanigher, [A] Gray Morrow. El Diablo rescues a kidnapped farm wife. This story has more excellent art, in the photorealistic tradition of Alex Raymond and Stan Drake. As far as I know, Morrow has never even been nominated for the Eisner Hall of Fame, but he deserves to be in it.
THE FLASH: ONE MINUTE WAR SPECIAL #1 (DC, 2023) – “Chapter One: Past” etc., [W] Jeremy Adams, [A] Fernando Pasarin. A series of stories that lead into the One-Minute War epic. These stories are a bit disappointing since they’re mostly about peripheral characters, including the alien villains and Avery Ho. The best story is the last one, since it stars the older versions of Jai and Irey, and it includes Jai’s second meeting with Gold Beetle. Bleeding Cool recently reported that Jeremy Adams is writing a new DC comic that will star all the kid characters from his Flash run.
THE WALKING DEAD #132 (Image, 2014) – “Happiness,” [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Charlie Adlard. The first half of the issue is another slice-of-life sequence, where the only real conflict is the tension between the people of Alexandria and the new arrivals. Also, Maggie and Glenn’s son says his first on-panel word. In the second half of the issue, Dante’s squad is ambushed by “zombies” that are actually living people sewn into zombies’ skins.
THE ONE HAND #2 (Image, 2024) – “Can’t Get Out,” [W] Ram V, [A] Laurence Campbell. Detective Ari Nassar continues his investigation, while the press accuses him of having convicted the wrong man of the previous round of murders. Also, Ari tries to find the sexbot that he’s fallen in love with. The issue ends with Ari attending an art exhibit. As we will later learn, the real murderer was at the same exhibit. Just as the two current versions of Radiant Black benefit from being read together, The One Hand benefits from being read in tandem with The Six Fingers.
FISHFLIES #5 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Jeff Lemire. Francis and the fly are kidnapped by two creepy old people named Betty and Butch. Betty claims that the current fly is the latest in a long series of humanoid flies. The cop and the comatose boy’s mother each conduct their own investigations into the fly phenomenon. At this point the series’ plot is starting to make more sense, though I still don’t understand the connection between the fly and the unconscious boy. This issue mentions that the series is set in Belle River, Ontario. That’s probably not new information, but I finally bothered to look up Belle River on a map, and it’s in Essex County, the site of Lemire’s previous graphic novel of the same name. And the series was inspired by an actual fly infestation that occurred in Belle River in 2017.
THE CABINET #2 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] David Ebeltoft, [A] Jordan Hart. Avani and her boyfriend go looking for another of the doodads, and they’re pursued by a conspiracy of wizards. I like this series’s concept and its art style, but given the decompressed pace of its plot, I have no idea how the series’ story can be completed in any reasonable length of time. Like, there are at least 29 doodads, and it takes more than a full issue for Avani to collect each of them.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #7 (DC, 2024) – “Cult of Man-Bat Part 1,” [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Simone Di Meo. This issue reintroduces Flatline, Damian’s romantic interest from the previous Robin ongoing series, and the plot also involves Shush and Man-Bat. This series’ plots have been somewhat confusing, and the confusion is increased by Simone Di Meo’s unclear visual storytelling. This is still a fun comic, but I think Di Meo’s talents would be better used elsewhere.
DEER EDITOR #3 (Mad Cave, 2024) – untitled, [W] Ryan K. Lindsay, [A] Sami Kivelä. Bucky escapes town with Rose, the mayor’s kidnapped daughter. After being chased all over the country, Bucky returns to town and exposes the conspiracy. This comic would have been worth buying just for its title, but it was also extremely fun detective story. However, the story was often difficult to follow, because important details were left to the reader to fill in.
SMASH! #1 (Rebellion, 2024) – “The Spider, the Claw, and the Stone,” [W] Paul Grist, [A] Anna Morozova w/ Tom Foster. While trying to steal something from a museum, the Spider encounters Jane Bond and the Steel Claw. There are also brief appearances by Janus Stark and a new bearer of the Eye of Zoltec, from Kelly’s Eye. All of these characters originate in classic British comics, and most of them appeared under other names in Grist’s creator-owned series Jack Staff. For Grist, it must have been a dream come true to get to write them officially. The reason this crossover is possible is because Rebellion owns almost all the old British comics, besides those published by D.C. Thomson. I’m curious to see what other classic characters will appear in this series.
THE FLASH #6 (DC, 2024) – “The Gift,” [W] Simon Spurrier, [A] Mike Deodato Jr. Most of this issue is narrated by Linda, as she accompanies Wally and Barry on an adventure, and gradually loses patience with her husband. Then there’s some more cosmic Lovecraftian nonsense, and the issue ends with a mention of something called the Crown of Thawnes. Jeremy Adams wrote Wally and Linda as essentially a perfect couple, but after just six issues of Si Spurrier’s run, it seems like they’re headed for divorce because of Wally’s neglectful behavior. I don’t think Spurrier knows how to write about people who are happily married. That’s just one problem with this series; we’ll discuss the other problems later.
HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER #21 (Boom!, 2024) – “The Butcher’s War Part 1,” [W] Tate Brombal, [A] Antonio Fuso. Jace Boucher continues his vendetta against the House of Slaughter. This issue is just setup, with no big surprises. I skipped the previous story arc of House of Slaughter because it was written by Sam Johns. Tate Brombal’s House of Slaughter stories are not nearly as good as the main title, but at least they’re readbale.
YOKO TSUNO VOL. 16 (Cinebook, 1986/2010) – “The Dragon of Hong Kong,” [W/A] Roger Leloup. There are in fact two dragons in this album: a real one, and a mechanical one created for a movie project. This album includes some thrilling action sequences, and its depictions of Hong Kong are extremely realistic-looking and immersive. This album also introduces Rosée du Matin (translated as Morning Dew), an orphaned girl who becomes Yoko’s adopted daughter. Yoko and Rosée/Dew’s immediate mutual bond is adorable. Rosée was inspired by Leloup’s own adopted daughter, and his tender feelings toward both her and Yoko are obvious. Yoko herself is another highlight of this album; she was a dynamic and vivacious female protagonist in an industry dominated by male characters. I love Yoko Tsuno, and I eventually want to collect the entire series. Leloup has a new Yoko Tsuno album coming out this month, which is impressive considering that he’s already 90 years old.
BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #25 (DC, 2024) – “Joker/Luthor: World’s Vilest,” [W] Mark Waid, [A] Steve Pugh. Luthor and the Joker team up for the first time, in order to steal a magical item from the Rock of Eternity. This story works because it depicts the Joker as a humorous cartoonish villain, rather than a demonic psychopath. “Impossible – Prologue,” [W] Mark Waid, [A] Dan Mora. In a follow-up to the first story from the recent annual, Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk visit the Batcave to beg the World’s Finest team for assistance.
ACTION COMICS #1063 (DC, 2024) – “Mind of Steel: I, Bizarro… Conclusion,” [W] Jason Aaron, [A] John Timms. Superman meets Bizarro Joker, the only sane man in the world. With Bizarro Joker’s help, Superman finally succeeds in defeating Bizarro, but at the cost of turning the Joker crazy again. This story arc was entertaining, but Jason Aaron is capable of writing even better than this.
2000 AD #2352 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: “Poison Part 02,” [W] Rob Williams, [A] P.J. Holden. Dredd discovers that a certain Alessandro Cervantes was involved in Hershey’s poisoning. Dredd gets assistance from one of Cervantes’s accomplices, and the man begs for his sentence to be reduced to ten years, to which Dredd replies, “Life. And that’s better than you deserve.” Helium: “Scorched Earth 02,” [W] Ian Edginton, [A] D’Israeli. The three protagonists travel through the wasteland until they encounter a plant monster. I didn’t realize this until later, but this story is a sequel to an earlier story that ended in prog 1945. “The Devil’s Railroad Part One,” [W] Peter Milligan, [A] Rufus Dayglo. On a colony planet, two expectant parents decide to travel to Earth so that their baby will be born with Earth citizenship. However, the trip to Earth is extremely expensive and dangerous. This story is an obvious allegory for immigration to America. The Fall of Deadworld: “Retribution Part One,” [W] Kek-W, [A] Dave Kendall. I don’t understand this story at all. Feral & Foe: “Bad Godesberg,” [W] Dan Abnett, [A] Richard Elson. The protagonists go on a dungeon crawl. There’s also an appearance by a porter named Peter.
DAWNRUNNER #1 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Ram V, [A] Evan Cagle. In an alternate future, the entire world’s resources are used to build Iron Kings (mecha) to fight invading Tetza (kaiju). The Iron Kings’ pilots are huge celebrities. Our protagonist, Iron King pilot Anita Marr, is fighting a Tetza when she has a strange flashback to another person’s past. This comic’s artwork is stunning, although it’s not yet clear how Dawnrunner is different from any other mecha/kaiju story.
SUPERMAN #12 (DC, 2024) – “Lex’s Truth,” [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] David Baldeon. Superman and Luthor conclude their battle with the Luthor Revenge Squad, and there’s a flashback to Luthor’s early career as a would-be superhero. Joshua Williamson’s Superman is entertaining, though it’s not at the same level of quality as Dark Ride.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #149 (IDW, 2024) – untitled, [W] Sophie Campbell, [A] Vincenzo Federici. Another excessively complicatd time travel story. Sophie Campbell’s last few TMNT story arcs have been disappointing in comparison to the earlier part of her run, and perhaps it’s just as well that her run is ending.
BLUE BOOK 1947 #2 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] James Tynion IV, [A] Michael Avon Oeming. More of the story of Kenneth Arnold and his role in creating the UFO phenomenon. This issue includes an appearance by Ray Palmer, the science fiction fan and editor, after whom the Silver Age Atom was named. Blue Book is still perhaps Tynion’s worst series to date, but I’m enjoying the second volume more than the first one, now that I realize that the series is based on historical events. The backup story, by Aditya Bidikar and Anand RK, is about the 2001 Monkeyman of Delhi incident.
SPIDER-GWEN: SMASH #4 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Melissa Flores, [A] Enid Balam. The Hulk’s conflict with Dazzler is resolved, but Mary Jane becomes Carnage permanently. This series was below average, and if it was an ongoing series, I would drop it.
MAGE: THE HERO DISCOVERED #7 (Comico, 1985) – “Lady, Shall I Lie in Your Lap?”, [W/A] Matt Wagner. I think I’ve already read this story in collected form, but it was a long time ago, and I don’t remember anything about it. Now that I’ve read it again, I still don’t remember anything about it. The plot doesn’t make sense to me, even though the issue begins with a recap of the previous issue. I have trouble reading Matt Wagner because I don’t understand what sort of effect or tone he’s trying to create. His comics seem to lack a clear aesthetic. This issue also includes a Grendel backup story, which is narrated entirely in caption boxes, with no word balloons.
THE IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #7 (Marvel, 2007) – “Uninvited,” [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Cory Walker. This issue includes a guest appearance by the Mighty Avengers, so its cover title is The Mighty Ant-Man and not The Irredeemable Ant-Man. In this issue Eric O’Grady hides in Carol Danvers’s purse and sneaks on board a SHIELD Minicarrier. Then he fights the Black Fox, an old Spider-Man villain, and at the end of the issue he meets some employees of Damage Control. Two pages of this story are devoted to Eric watching Carol take a shower. Carol is presented in this story as a minor superhero and as an object of Eric’s male gaze. It wasn’t until five years later that Kelly Sue DeConnick began turning Carol into Marvel’s flagship female protagonist.
RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #3 (Marvel, 2024) – “Falls the Shadow,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Luciano Vecchio. Storm and Magneto confront the Shadow King, and Magneto finally wakes up. This was a lackluster issue, and it didn’t tell us anything about Magneto we didn’t already know.
PETROL HEAD #5 (Image, 2024) – “…The City is All,” [W] Rob Williams, [A] Pye Parr. After a chase sequence, the main characters finally make it to the upper level of the city, and the miniseries ends on a cliffhanger. I wish this story arc had ended with a more definite resolution, considering that there’s no guarantee that a second story arc is forthcoming. This sort of ending would have been more appropriate if Petrol Head had been published in 2000 AD, where there’d have been more likelihood of a sequel.
APE-RIL SPECIAL #1 (DC, 2024) – “Plan of the Apes,” [W] John Layman, [A] Karl Mostert, etc. This issue’s first story stars Sam Simeon, the Ape of Angel and the Ape, as he forms a “Jungle League of America” to battle an alliance of monkey villains. This story is hilarious, particularly because it’s written in a deadpan style, and it doesn’t try too hard to make the reader laugh. Until I read this story I didn’t even realize that DC had two monkey detectives, Sam Simeon and Detective Chimp. For a minute I thought that Layman had mistakenly conflated these two characters with each other, until he depicted them both in the same scene. There are two backup stories starring Detective Chimp and Monkey Prince. It’s particularly nice to see Monkey Prince again, since he vanished into limbo after his series ended.
JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER: DEAD IN AMERICA #3 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W] Simon Spurrier, [A] Aaron Campbell. This issue follows the stories of two parallel characters: a Latin American woman trying to cross the U.S. border, and a fascist militiaman trying to “defend” the border against foreign “invaders.” Spurrier makes a valiant attempt to understand the domestic terrorist’s thinking, but his sympathies are clearly with the undocumented immigrant, who he associates with the mythological figure of La Llorona. Because this story takes place on multiple time frames at once, it’s a bit hard to follow, but it may be DC’s best attempt to grapple with the topic of America’s southern border. This series is a much better fit for Simon Spurrier’s talents than The Flash is.
SCARLET WITCH & QUICKSILVER #2 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Steve Orlando, [A] Lorenzo Tammetta. Wanda fights the Wizard, who is written in an out-of-character way. Quicksilver meets his sort-of nephew Speed. I like both Wanda and Pietro, but this series has two different plots with no clear connection, and neither of the plots is exciting. I’ve already ordered Steve Orlando’s upcoming Scarlet Witch solo series, but I may change my mind about buying it.
IF YOU FIND THIS, I’M ALREADY DEAD #2 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Dan McDaid. Robin travels through a succession of alien landscapes that are alternately nightmarish and Kirbyesque. Finally she encounters the only other human on the planet. This issue goes in a very different direction from the first issue, and I’m still not sure what this series is supposed to be about.
THE WRONG EARTH: DEAD RINGERS #1 – untitled, [W] Tom Peyer, [A] Jamal Igle. This issue begins with a monologue by the Reader, a parody of the Watcher. This sequence is as metafictional and parodistic as this series has ever gotten. Then the two Dragonflymen try to get a scientist to investigate the dimensional-portal mirrors, but the scientist is revealed to be a villain in disguise. I have to admit, I hesitate to read Ahoy comics because of the text pieces at the end. I know that the text pieces were part of the inspiration for the company, but I don’t like it when comics include minimally illustrated texts.
2000 AD #2353 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: as above. A Judge follows Alessandro Cervantes’s trail to East-Meg Two, but gets caught by Sov judges. The Sov judge uniform is a striking contrast to the Mega-City One judge uniform. Dredd only appears on two pages of this chapter. Helium: as above. The protagonists are rescued by people in gas masks. The Devil’s Railroad: as above. Palamon, the husband, accidentally kills a man while trying to stop him from raping a woman. He then discovers that the man was Joey White, the son of a notorious gangster. This is easily the best story in the issue, and one of the best things Peter Milligan has written lately. Palamon and Constance’s situation is just so bleak and horrible, and it’s going to get even worse. The Fall of Deadworld: as above. This story still doesn’t make any sense. Feral & Foe: as above. Two of the characters encounter an “owlbore,” which kills its prey by overloading them with useless information. This is a parody of a Dungeons & Dragons monster, the owlbear.
ASTONISHING TALES #31 (Marvel, 1975) – “Twice Removed from Yesterday…”, [W] Doug Moench, [A] Rich Buckler. Deathlok goes looking for a surgeon who can make him normal again, and he also has constant arguments with the computer in his head. I have problems with both Moench and Buckler – the former had a problem with overwriting, and the latter with plagiarism – but I enjoyed this story more than I expected to. Maybe I should try to complete this Deathlok run. The backup story is a reprint of a “Tales of the Watcher” story from Silver Surfer #3. It has some excellent Gene Colan art, but its plot is similar to that of a ‘50s Marvel science fiction story: it’s about a man who’s looking for an alien, and the twist ending is that he himself is the alien.
HE WHO FIGHTS WITH MONSTERS #1 (Ablaze, 2016/2021) – untitled, [W] Francesco Artibani, [A] Werther Dell’Edera. In Nazi-occupied Prague, some fugitive Jews decide to resurrect the ancient Golem. This story seems to have been first published under the title “Golem,” as issue 49 of Bonelli’s anthology series Le storie. Stories about the Golem are something of a cliché at this point, and I don’t know if these creators are entitled to tell this story, because I can’t tell if either of them is Jewish. However, this comic seems historically accurate, and it’s much more interesting than Life Zero.
SINISTER SONS #2 (DC, 2024) – “Bad Sons Rising Prt 2,” [W] Peter Tomasi, [A] Vasco Georgiev & David Lafuente. Unsurprisingly, Lor-Zod and Sinson hate each other at first sight. But when they get swallowed by a giant space whale, they have to work together to survive. This series is an entertaining reversal of Super Sons. Lor-Zod is the new 52 version of Chris Kent, but this Lor-Zod is so different from Chris Kent as to be a separate character.
MONSTER FAN CLUB #2 (Floating World, 2024) – “My Way” etc., [W] Jason T. Miles, [A] Shaky Kane. This issue is almost entirely drawn by Shaky Kane, and its large format means that his art is even more striking than usual. However, this issue’s story makes no sense at all, and is perhaps not intended to.
CAPTAIN MARVEL #6 (Marvel, 2024) – “Genesis,” [W] Alyssa Wong, [A] Ruairi Coleman. The various Captain Marvels fight the Undone or the Omen or whatever. This issue is mostly pointless fight scenes with little characterization, and at this point I was getting sick of this series.
PROJECT CRYPTID #7 (Ahoy, 2024) – “John Crow,” [W] Joseph P. Illidge, [A] Jamal Igle & Juan Castro. A Jamaican man is shot by American police and is reincarnated as John Crow, a traditional symbol of death. This story has some powerful ideas, but is not long enough to express these ideas fully. “The Monster in the Window,” [W] A.A. Rubin, [A] Richard Pace. Two parallel stories about a human family and a bigfoot family. As in Will Eisner’s classic “Two Lives,” each family’s story occupies one vertical half of each page.
JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. GODZILLA VS. KONG #6 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W] Brian Buccellato, [A] Christian Duce & Tom Derenick. Batman and Green Lantern each create giant robots to fight the kaiju, and Superman recovers from his coma and confronts Godzilla. This is at least the third “mecha vs. kaiju” story I’ve read lately, along with Dawnrunner and Xiran Jay Zhao’s novel Iron Widow. I wonder if the film Pacific Rim was responsible for popularizing the combination of these genres. It seems to me that before Pacific Rim, kaiju and giant robots were mostly separate genres.
2000 AD #2354 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: as above. The judge, Domino, escapes the Sov judges and recovers Cervantes’s ledger, which reveals that Cervantes was in league with another old villain, P.J. Maybe. Helium: as above. The protagonists reach the city of the “Sloggers”, which turns out to not be all that bad, except that there’s a giant eye in the sky. The Devil’s Railroad: as above. Joey White’s mother urges her other, less beloved son to avenge Joey’s death. Celestine and Palamon board a ship to their next destination, but the ship crashes. The Fall of Deadworld: as above. Again I have no idea what’s going on here. Feral & Foe: as above. This chapter introduces a monster called a “jellied icosahedron,” i.e. gelatinous cube.
VENGEANCE IS FOR THE LIVING #1 (Floating World, 2024) – “Silent Weapon,” [W] Keenan Marshall Keller, [A] Alex Delaney. A woman wakes up in the hospital to discover that her children have been murdered, and her husband is missing. She signs herself out of the hospital so that she can take revenge on the killers. Some more masked men come to her house to assassinate her, but she’s saved by her sister, who’s even more of a badass. Vengeance Is for the Living is a brutally violent and gruesome story, in a similar style to Charles Forsman’s Slasher and Revenger, or Keller’s previous series The Humans. But possibly because of this, VIFTL is very gripping and emotional. The art is somewhat crude, but that seems appropriate considering the grittiness of the story. I look forward to the next issue.
NO/ONE #8 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato, [A] Geraldo Borges. The media discovers that the gun used in the current murders is the same one used in an earlier murder in which Ben Kern was involved. Ben becomes a public pariah, and then he’s attacked by a white supremacist biker gang, but No/One saves him. I like this series, but its plot is way too complicated, and this issue doesn’t even have a character gallery, as some of the earlier issues had.
THE BLOODY DOZEN #4 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Charles Soule, [A] Alberto Jiménez Albuquerque. We start with a flashback to the formation of the nine vampires’ alliance. Then the protagonists’ ship is attacked by the Artisans’s space fleet, and in order to win the battle, they have to let the vampires loose. This series is okay, but again it’s not my favorite of Charles Soule’s comics.
FACELESS AND THE FAMILY #3 (Oni, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Matt Lesniewski. Faceless finally gets surgery on his face. This series is beautiful, but maybe too much so, because I feel obligated to scrutinize every panel carefully (and I’m ashamed to admit that for this reason I considered not buying this issue). In comics there’s always a certain tradeoff between narrative momentum and graphic richness, between reading the story and savoring the artwork. But that tradeoff is not necessarily a bad thing, and it also exists in other media.
X-MEN FOREVER #1 (Marvel, 2024) – “A Ghost,” [W] Kieron Gillen, [A] Luca Maresca. Xavier’s “team outside time and space” tries to defeat Enigma, who’s sort of the perfected form of Mr. Sinister. Even before reading this issue I was thoroughly sick of Mr. Sinister. As written by Gillen, he can do just about anything he wants, and he can never be permanently defeated. I’ve also gotten sick of this series’s hypercomplicated time travel plots. The main appeal of Gillen’s Immortal X-Men – its highly detailed depiction of the individual X-Men’s perspectives – is missing from this miniseries and from Rise of the Powers of X. I’m only continuing to read Gillen’s X-Men because I feel obligated to read anything he writes. Then again, I have the same feeling about Zdarsky, and I stopped reading his Batman…
2000 AD #2355 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: as above. P.J. Maybe is already dead, but Dredd discovers that the poison he used on Hershey is only available in the Cursed Earth. Helium: as above. The protagonists learn more about the Sloggers’ city. I still don’t quite understand this story, although D’Israeli’s art is very nice. The Devil’s Railroad: as above. In the crash, Constance and Palamon are separated. Isaac White finds a man who claims to know who killed his brother. The Fall of Deadworld: as above. See previous reviews. Feral & Foe: as above. This chapter is devoted to plot, and no new monster parodies are introduced.
THE WALKING DEAD #190 (Image, 2019) – “Storm the Gates,” [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Charlie Adlard. Rick’s conflict with the Governor erupts into open war. I don’t know the context for this issue, and I’m not sure how much time has passed between it and issue 132.
Back to Heroes on April 5, I think:
USAGI YOJIMBO: THE CROW #1 (Dark Horse, 2024) – “The Crow Part 1,” [W/A] Stan Sakai. On the road, Usagi and Yukichi help a lone samurai fight off four attackers. During the fight, the lone man is saved by his pet crow. In the nearby town’s tavern, Usagi and Yukichi meet Gen and Stray Dog, who are there to hunt down a ruthless killer named Jimmu. And it seems that Jimmu has a pet crow. Oops. Subsequently, Yukichi argues with Usagi, Gen and Stray Dog three about the morality of mercenary work, and he storms out of the tavern in anger. This scene reveals a side of Yukichi’s personality that we haven’t seen before.
FERAL #1 (Image, 2024) – “Indoor Cats,” [W] Tony Fleecs, [A] Trish Fortner. Three cats – Elsie, Patch and Lord – escape from an animal control van when it drives off a cliff. While lost in the woods, the cats have to escape from rabid foxes and raccoons. We gradually realize that there’s a rabies epidemic going on, and the cats were taken from their home to be slaughtered so that they couldn’t spread it further. When I met Fleecs and Forstner at Heroes Con, I asked them an obvious question: were they going to do a cat version of Stray Dogs? They said that they wanted to, but they weren’t sure how to approach it, because it was hard to come up with a plot that would create sympathy for the cats. They have now solved that problem brilliantly. The overwhelming impression in Feral #1 is that the cats are terrified: they’re indoor cats, and they’re totally unequipped to deal with the outdoors world, let alone the rabies epidemic. Based on personal appearance, I feel this is very realistic: my own cat tends to hide under the bed when there’s anyone in my apartment other than me. Some other nice touches in this issue are, first, page one, where one of the cats is sitting inside looking out the window, and the caption says “This was perfect. This was every day.” Second, one of the cats is named Lord, short for Lord Fluffy Britches, and he’s completely insane.
SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK #7 (Marvel, 2024) – “All In Part 2,” [W] Rainbow Rowell, [A] Ig Guara. Jack tells Jen that he promised to “be there” for Ganymede after she finished her mission of vengenace. And he feels obliged to keep that promise. So Jen and Jack’s relationship seems to be over, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Jen’s spaceship is impounded. But even worse, the reason Ganymede was there in the first place was to meet with a new client – Drapurg, He of the Horde, who wants to hire Ganymede as an instrument of vengeance on She-Hulk! This is an awesome plot twist because I had totally forgotten about Drapurg. This is in fact his first appearance, as he was mentioned in issue 15 of the previous series, but did not appear.
NEWBURN #16 (Image, 2024) – “What’s the Plan,” [W] Chip Zdarsky, [A] Jacob Phillips. Emily sets herself up as the new Newburn, and the series ends with her finally meeting Newburn’s mother. This story is only 16 pages, plus five pages that are just a date (e.g. 01/17/23). This was an impressive series, despite the terrible backup stories.
COBRA COMMANDER #3 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Andrea Milana. Cobra Commander withstands the Dreadnoks’ torture without breaking a sweat. Then his mysterious bearded companion comes to rescue him, and is revealed as Nemesis Enforcer. I had forgotten about this character until now, even though I watched G.I. Joe regularly as a kid. Cobra-La and Golobulus and Nemesis Enforcer were very much at odds with the general tone of the franchise, and Larry Hama never used any of the Cobra-La characters except Serpentor, who he killed off. However, it makes sense for Williamson to resurrect these characters, given that this G.I. Joe comic is part of a bigger science-fictional universe.
BLACK HAMMER: THE END #6 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Jeff Lemire, [A] Malachi Ward. The Black Hammer family finally defeats the evil Black Hammer and Anti-God, and all the worlds are merged. This is a satisfying conclusion to eight years of Black Hammer comics, but I hope we get more Black Hammer someday.
POWER PACK: INTO THE STORM #4 (Marvel, 2024) – “Power Drain”, [W] Louise Simonson, [A] June Brigman. While Storm is fighting some Brood aliens, Power Pack finally reaches Mother Mayhem, but she’s already started absorbing Franklin’s powers. This issue is mostly action scenes, but it also includes some strong character development. A cute moment is Franklin thumbing his nose at Mother Mayhem.
KAYA #17 (Image, 2024) – “Kaya and the Temple of Shazir Part 5,” [W/A] Wes Craig. The comatose Jin has a horrifying vision where he’s confronted by a giant monster. Kaya gets the plant from the spring and revives Jin, and Jin, Kaya and Varia prepare to invade the palace and rescue the princess. This issue was a quicker read than most issues of Kaya.
LOCAL MAN: BAD GIRLS #1 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Tim Seeley & Tony Fleecs. A female superhero, Neon, tells Inga the story of her superhero career and her associations with the Camo Crusader. This issue is a parody/tribute to the Bad Girl comics of the ‘90s, and it includes cameo appearances by Witchblade, She-Dragon, and other characters I can’t identify. Crossjack himself is not in this issue, and there’s no flipbook backup story.
BIRDS OF PREY #8 (DC, 2024) – “Undercover Animals Part 2,” [W] Kelly Thompson, [A] Javier Pina. Sin adopts “The Caterer” as a tongue-in-cheek code name. The fashion show is invaded by male models wearing mind-controlling clothing. Due to a miscommunication, Barda thinks it’s her clothes that are mind-controlling, so she spends much of the issue fighting naked. After the BoP have apparently won, Batgirl travels through some kind of dimensional portal, and Dinah follows her through it. This two-parter was extremely funny, and it was the high point of the series so far, even though I don’t like Javier Pina’s art as much as Leonardo Romero’s.
LE RETOUR A LA TERRE VOL. 1 (Dargaud, 2002) – “La Vraie Vie,” [W] Jean-Yves Ferri, [A] Manu Larcenet. In this mostly autobiographical story, “Manu Larssinet” and his wife Mariette move from Paris to a tiny rural village, and they have to adjust to a very different way of life. Although this book was first published in album format, it’s formatted like a collection of gag strips. Each page is divided into two strips, each of which has its own title and usually consists of six panels. The gags mostly consist of self-deprecating jokes about the weather, the lack of urban amenities, the alleged beauty of nature, etc. A running gag is the (fictional) dialect word “karoutcho.” At the end of the book, there’s a metatextual moment where “Larssinet” hosts a housewarming party, where the guests include Jean-Yves Ferri, as well as Lewis Trondheim, Brigitte Findakly and their children. At the party, Manu and Jean-Yves discuss the idea of creating a comic whose description corresponds to Le Retour á la Terre itself. Overall this was an extremely funny comic, and I would love to read the other volumes. I’ve already read Larcenet’s Ordinary Victories (Le combat ordinaire), a great comic ruined by an awful English translation.
DUKE #4 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Tom Reilly. Major Bludd survives his injuries from last issue, but loses an eye. Duke, the Baroness and the other three future Joes escape from the Pit, then Duke proceeds to another of Destro’s bases, where he’s attacked by a B.A.T. robot. Tom Reilly’s artwork in this issue has been quietly brilliant.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #3 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Jonathan Hickman, [A] Marco Checchetto. Peter designs a new costume, then takes his daughter out webswinging. Later, Peter intervenes in a battle between the Green Goblin and Bullseye. The Goblin forcibly unmasks Peter, then reveals himself as Harry Osborn. Unlike in the mainstream Marvel Universe, they haven’t met each other before. This has been a really good series, though the following issue is even better than this one.
SAVAGE DRAGON #269 (Image, 2024) – “S.O.S. West!”, [W/A] Erik Larsen. Dragon and his friends battle some sea monsters who actually want more water pollution, not less. Mr. Glum, in Frank’s body, murders a racist policeman. Mickey Mouse sexually assaults Maxine. I can’t believe I just wrote that last sentence. Then the city gets invaded by an even bigger sea monster. I’m glad this series is being published somewhat more regularly.
THE GOON: THEM THAT DON’T STAY DEAD #1 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Eric Powell. The Kid with the Duck tries to get revenge on the Goon by resurrecting his late brother, the Zombie Priest (a.k.a. the Nameless Man). This issue is a typical example of the Goon’s formula, except that it’s in black and white, unlike most of the previous series. It’s strange that this series doesn’t have legacy numbering, while Usagi Yojimbo does have it.
AKOGUN: BRUTALIZER OF GODS #1 (Oni, 2024) – “We Were All Made by a Drunk God” etc., [A] Murewa Ayodele, [A] Dotun Akande. An Africanfuturist story about a Yorùbá hero who seeks vengeance. The first two-thirds of the comic are a creation myth, and the hero himself, Akogun (meaning something like “warrior”) is not born until part three. The story appears to be based on Yorùbá myth; it includes the deity Obatala as a major character. However, I suspect that Ayodele and Akande have adapted these myths for their own purposes. Ayodele also cites Robert E. Howard as an influence. Akogun’s story is very strange to me, but that’s a good thing. This series feels like it’s an own-voices depiction of Yorùbá culture, rather than a depiction of Africa filtered through an American perspective.
SHAZAM! #10 (DC, 2024) – “Moving Day Part 1,” [W] Josie Campbell, [A] Emanuela Lupacchino. Billy and his foster family move into the new house, only to find that Zeus has filled it with interdimensional portals. A madcap adventure results. Also, Billy receives a letter, but the Captain burns it before we get to read it. I loved Mark Waid’s run on this series, and I’m sorry he’s gone, but Josie Campbell seems to be writing the series in a similar vein to Mark. This issue begins and ends with monologies about what it’s like to grow up in foster care – for example, when you’re a foster kid, you constantly have to move, carrying your possessions in a garbage bag. These meditations seem very authentic to me, and I wonder if they’re bsed on Campbell’s own experience.
DAREDEVIL #7 (Marvel, 2024) – “Introductory Rites Part 7,” [W] Saladin Ahmed, [A] Aaron Kuder. Daredevil fights the next deadly sin, Wolverine. We’re meant to think that Wolverine is the personification of wrath, but in fact he represents lust, specifically Matt’s lust for violence. Appropriately, this issue includes some gruesome violence. In the bar scene, the guy in the background, carrying the box, is Saladin himself.
IMMORTAL THOR #9 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Land of Lost Content,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Ibraim Roberson. Dario Agger tells Thor that his endgame is to destroy the entire world, except for his own customers. And his motivation is simply that “I like it when the number goes up. That’s all. Because that means I win. That means I’m better. And that’s all there is.” This speech is frighteningly believable. As part of his plan, Dario wants to turn Thor from a work of story into a piece of content – and the defining property of content is that it’s just supposed to fill space, and its characteristics or merits are unimportant. Which helps me realize why I’ve always been uncomfortable with the word “content” in phrases like “content creator.” In order to turn Thor into content, Dario Agger has produced his own Thor comic book, which really exists, and I will be reviewing it below. This issue is the first time that Immortal Thor has approached the quality level of Immortal Hulk. “The Land of Lost Content” is a fascinating meditation on the corporate dominance of art.
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #5 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Heel Turn,” [W] Dan Slott & Christos Gage, [A] Mark Bagley. After lots of plot twists, Doc Ock turns evil again and imprisons Supernova, planning to use her as a power source – even if he has to do it over Spider-Man’s dead body. Meanwhile, Spider-Boy goes looking for Peter, but he finds Peter’s sentient spiders (the remains of Spiders-Man), and they take over his mind and turn him into the Superior Spider-Boy. I’m not sure if this story happens before or after the current Spider-Boy storyline, though it doesn’t really matter.
UNDER YORK #1 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Sylvain Runberg, [A] Mirka Andolfo. When Allison was a child, her entire family vanished after trying to summon the demon Marduk. Now Allison is beginning her career as an artist, but she’s summoned by the assembled witches of New York’s magical underworld (hence Under York), and they tell her that she has to find her family in order to avert disaster. I enjoyed the first album of Sylvain Runberg’s Orbital, and I’m excited to read another of his works. This comic seems intelligently written, though the translation is a bit awkward. It’s easy to tell that it’s a depiction of New York from a European perspective. In particular, no one in America ever refers to New York as just York. This series was first published by Glénat in 2019-2020, under the title Les chroniques d’Under York.
PRIMER #1 (DC, 2024) – “Primary Colors,” [W] Jennifer Muro & Thomas Krajewski, [A] Gretel Lusky. In a flashforward sequence, the protagonist, Ashley Rayburn, uses superpowered paint to prevent a plane crash. In a flashback, we see that is the daughter of an unspecified supervillain, and she’s grown up in foster care. Now she’s moved in with a new foster family that seems perfect, but her new foster mom has some kind of dark secret, which must be how Ashley will get her powers. This comic originated as a young adult graphic novel. I have no idea why DC decided to print it in comic book form, but I’m glad they did, because I’m more willing to buy comic books sight unseen, as compared to graphic novels. Ashley is a compelling character, and Gretel Lusky’s artwork is appealing. In this comic Ashley’s foster mom claims that she has “various PhDs.” This is a pet peeve of mine. Almost nobody has or needs more than one PhD.
LOVE EVERLASTING #14 (Image, 2024) – “Acting Out Love,” [W] Tom King, [A] Elsa Charretier. The Cowboy encounters Joan three more times, and then he finally gets to meet Joan’s mother. I can’t remember whether Joan’s mother has ever appeared on-panel before. This feels like a superfluous issue; it could have been omitted without affecting the series’ plot.
THE ONE HAND #3 (Image, 2024) – “Alien Territory”, [W] Ram V, [A] Laurence Campbell. Ari interviews the alleged One Hand killer, Odell Watts, in his prison cell. Watts tells Ari some things that make no sense, then gets attacked by his fellow inmates. Ari is taken off the One Hand case and told to retire. After a further fruitless search for his favorite sexbot, Ari visits Odell Watts in hospital, against his superior’s orders, and finds Watts dead. I think I read this comic out of order.
THE SIX FINGERS #2 (Image, 2024) – “There is No Chaos”, [W] Dan Watters, [A] Sumit Kumar. Johannes gets hired at his girlfriend’s art gallery, and we meet the gallery’s owner, Galina. Johannes has some bizarre visions, then he encounters Ari Nassar at the gallery. I think this scene was depicted from Ari’s perspective in The One Hand #2. Johannes is a pretty awful person, but it seems like he’s not committing the murders on purpose.
TRAVELING TO MARS #11 (Ablaze, 2024) – untitled, [W] Mark Russell, [A] Roberto “Dakar” Meli. Roy realizes that once the humans realize Mars doesn’t have natural gas, they’ll take revenge on the robots. So Roy tells the robots to be kind to each other, stay away from humans, and follow their desires rather than their programming. The robots present Roy with the first robot that they’ve created themselves. It’s named ERB (for “environmental reclamation bot” but really for Edgar Rice Burroughs), but Roy names it Candace. So even though Roy never had a child and couldn’t save humanity, he’s helped nurture a new species, and that’s about as happy an ending as this series could have had. And thus ends Mark Russell’s best series, other than Second Coming.
THE LAST MERMAID #2 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Derek Kirk Kim. The mermaid continues her journey until she finds an underground cave full of water, but it’s also the hideout of a giant fish monster. The mermaid is an interesting character, though it’s weird that she’s the only character in the comic so far. This comic has a very irregular format. It’s too wide to fit into a longbox, but too short to put in a magazine box. I’m not sure where I’ll store it.
MINOR THREATS: THE FASTEST WAY DOWN #1 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Patton Oswalt & Jordan Blum, [A] Scott Hepburn. This is a direct sequel to the first Minor Threats, rather than a spinoff like The Alternates. Frankie Follis, aka Playtime, is now running the city, but some young superheroes are trying to take her down by revealing her involvement in Insomniac’s death. This issue is narrated by Frankie’s bodyguard, Backdrop, who has the ability not to be seen. This series is okay so far, but I think I liked The Alternates better.
2000 AD #2356 (Rebellion, 2023) – Cadet Dredd: “Deep Trouble,” [W] Paul Starkey, [A] Ben Willsher. Dredd travels to the Undercity at night to rescue Rico from some criminals. As a result, Dredd sleeps through morning roll call for the first time in his life. I guess Dredd wasn’t using a sleep machine yet. Lowborn High: “Fire & Frost,” [W] David Barnett, A] Mike Walters. Andy’s sister Ariadne saves him and his fellow students from being eaten by a bear (though it could have been worse; at least it wasn’t a man). Andy’s sister reveals that the teachers were kidnapped by their family’s manservant, Grownf. The teachers trade Andy to Grownf in exchange for Ariadne, and they curse Andy’s classmates so that they can’t tell anyone where Andy is. I hope we get more Lowborn High soon. Future Shocks: “Content Provider,” [W] Karl Stock, [A] Joe Currie. In the future, a single corporation owns all of entertainment, and it operates a game show where the contestant has to go a week without being seen by anyone. This story could have appeared in a regular prog. Bladers: untitled, [W] James Peaty, [A] Mark Simmons. A roller derby team wins a match despite interference from the other team’s coach.
TORPEDO 1972 #2 (Ablaze, 2024) – untitled, [W] Enrique Sanchez Abuli, [A] Eduardo Risso. Torpedo fights some mobsters in a bar, then he seeks revenge on the journalist from last issue. This series has been a bit disappointing so far. It seems less witty and more sensationalistic than the original series, and while Risso’s art is excellent, his style is quite different from that of the two original artists, Toth and Bernet.
JILL AND THE KILLERS #3 (Oni, 2024) – untitled, [W] Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, [A] Roberta Ingranata. Jill continues her investigation, and also gets angry at her friends, one of whom is lying about her age. There are some new plot developments in this issue, but it’s mostly setup.
TINTIN VOL. 11 (Atlantic Monthly, 1943/1959) – “The Secret of the Unicorn,” [W/A] Hergé. After discovering a model ship at a flea market, Tintin becomes involved in a complicated adventure that brings him to Marlinspike (Moulinsart) for the first time. I said before that Tintin may be the best comic in the world, and one the reason is because of Hergé’s incredible mastery of plotting and comedic timing. This album is full of comedic twists and reversals and brilliant gags. See, for example, Tintin hitting his head on the drawer, or Captain Haddock’s increasing intoxication as he tells Sir Francis Haddock’s story, or the chase sequence at the end where Tintin, Thompson and Thomson, Captain Haddock, Nestor and the two villains keep turning the tables on each other. Only an absolute master plotter could have choreographed this scene. But perhaps the most memorable moment in the book is when Tintin is trapped in the basement of Marlinspike, and he builds a makeshift battering ram to knock down the wall. Moulinsart is named after a village in Belgium, but the building itself is based on the real-life Chateau de Cheverny in France, and that building is now the site of a permanent Tintin exhibit, complete with battering ram. It should be noted that in the original albums, Marlinspike’s location is left somewhat ambiguous, but there are clues that indicate that it’s in Belgium. In the English translations, it’s instead stated to be in England.
REDCOAT #1 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Geoff Johns, [A] Bryan Hitch. In 1770s America, a British soldier sneaks into a Masonic ritual (which looks like a Ku Klux Klan ritual) and is accidentally cursed with immortality. He spends the next century fighting and adventuring, until in 1892 he meets a young Albert Einstein. This is a major historical inaccuracy, as the real Einstein didn’t visit America until 1921. I thought at first that the kid was Harry Houdini. None of the new Ghost Machine titles are all that exciting, but at least they’re readable.
BATMAN: THE DARK AGE #1 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W] Mark Russell, [A] Mike Allred. This series begins with a flashforward sequence set at the end of Bruce Wayne’s life. Then we flash back to Bruce’s childhood. As usual, the story begins with Bruce’s parents being murdered. During Bruce’s minority, Wayne Enterprises is taken over by an anonymous masked man. Bruce grows up as a dissipated wastrel, relying on his company’s team of lawyers to keep him out of prison, while he also survives numerous assassination attempts from his own company’s board. Just when he’s about to turn eighteen and inherit his company, Bruce is arrested one last time, ironically while trying to prevent a crime. This triggers a moral turpitude clause which causes him to lose control of Wayne Enterprises, and he’s sent to prison for ten years. We also learn that the mysterious CEO is Pariah from Crisis. This is a rather inauspicious beginning for Batman. I’m curious to see how Bruce gets out of this.
CEMETERY KIDS DON’T DIE #2 (Oni, 2024) – untitled, [W] Zac Thompson, [A] Daniel Irizarri. The kids go looking for their friend who’s gotten lost in the video game. When the main character wakes up, she discovers that she’s lost an eye. CKDD has an interesting premise, but I don’t much like Zac Thompson’s style of body horror.
THE FLASH #7 (DC, 2024) – “The Roundup,” [W] Simon Spurrier, [A] Ramón Pérez. Wally’s been gone for three days, but Linda doesn’t care because she’s too busy raising her kids. Max and Bart are kidnapped by the Linear Men, who look nothing like the original Linear Men created by Dan Jurgens. The Linear Men have also kidnapped Gold Beetle and many other unknown characters. With this issue I began to get really sick of Spurrier’s Flash. The best thing about Jeremy Adams’s Flash was its focus on the Park-West family, but Spurrier has turned this family into a dysfunctional mess. He shows us that Wally is a neglectful father, Linda is checked out of her marriage, and Jai resents his sister. The problem, to expand on what I wrote in my previous review, is that Spurrier doesn’t know how to write about happy people. Maybe Tolstoy was right that happy families are all alike, and that means it’s hard to write about happy people, but it’s not impossible.
2000 AD #2357 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: as #2355 above. Dredd travels to the Cursed Earth and finds the man who imported the poison. This man appears to be a returnee from Titan. Helium: as above. The protagonists settle in to the domed city, but the villains trace them there. Devil’s Railroad: as above. Palamon manages to escape Isaac White’s notice, but then Isaac gives Constance a ride, neither of them knowing who the other is. The Fall of Deadworld: as above. This story has something to do with Judge Fear, but I don’t understand anything else about it. Feral & Foe: as above. This chapter just consists of plot stuff that I didn’t understand.
BLACK PHOENIX #1 (Floating World, 2023) – “Killer in My Sleep” etc., [W/A] Rich Tommaso. This 100-plus-page comic book is a reprint of various stories from Rich Tommaso’s Black Phoenix magazine, which he started after the failure of his last traditional comics project, Spy Seal. I didn’t buy any of the Black Phoenix magazines, so I was glad when they were reprinted in this form. However, because of its extreme length, I didn’t read this comic until issue 3 was already out. There’s also a new hardcover edition of this same material. I saw this book at Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find yesterday, and it looks beautiful. The three comic-format issues of Black Phoenix are organized thematically rather than chronologically. This first issue is devoted to crime stories. Some of these are short stories, while others are serials consisting of several chapters, which are dispersed throughout the issue. The best story in the issue is “The Mysterious Case” starring Sam Hill, in which a Los Angeles detective investigates a murder involving a mysterious briefcase. But his investigation is doomed to fail, because too many powerful figures in the city are implicated in the murder, and we never find out all the details of what happened. There’s also a “Young Sam Hill” story that’s an homage to Spirou, and “I Worked with a Zombie,” an homage to Jacques Tourneur’s film I Walked with a Zombie. In general this is a fascinating comic, though its length makes it challenging to read.
G.O.D.S. #6 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Jonathan Hickman, [A] Valerio Schiti. Wyn and Aiko visit the Living Tribunal. After a promising start, G.O.D.S. has completely fizzled out. Its plot makes no sense, and I don’t care about any of the characters except Mia, who’s not in this issue. I’m glad there are just two more issues.
RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #3 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Ex Life of Moira,” [W] Kieron Gillen, [A] R.B. Silva. Xavier tries to go back in time and kill Moira as a child, before she gains her powers, but he can’t bring himself to do something so awful. This issue was at least more emotionally affecting than previous issues. However, Moira’s power is the fundamental problem with this series’ plot. Because of Moira, any event that happens in this series can potentiallly be reversed, and therefore none of these events seem to matter.
SCALPED #43 (Vertigo, 2011) – “A Come-to-Jesus,” [W] Jason Aaron, [A] Jason Latour. U.S. marshal Virgil Drum meets Sheriff Wooster T. Karnow. The latter character pretends to be a cowboy, a stud, a Vietnam veteran, a football star, etc. But it slowly becomes clear that Karnow isn’t any of these things, and that Karnow is far less of a man than Drum, precisely because Karnow is so protective of his masculinity. The reader can also infer that Karnow is lying about his Vietnam service, and this is explicitly confirmed elsewhere in the series. Karnow is sort of a prototype of Coach Boss in Southern Bastards, except Coach Boss really is what Karnow wishes he was.
2000 AD #2358 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: as above. Dredd visits Titan to interview the ultimate culprit, former judge Sinfield. Fall of Deadworld: as above. More complete nonsense. Helium: as above. An airship from Ris flies over the Sloggers’ city and issues a threat to start bombing, unless the Sloggers surrender Hodge and her two companions. I had to look up Hodge’s name. Devil’s Railroad: as above. Isaac White tries to rape Constance, she bites his hand, and he throws her off his hovercraft. Also, one of Palamon’s companions is shockingly killed. Feral & Foe: as above. The heroes go back to the basement to fight the jellied icosahedron.
DEEP CUTS #6 (Image, 2024) – “The Great Unknown,” [W] Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark, [A] Toby Cypress. In 1977, with jazz declining in popularity, saxophonist Barry is doing session work while playing in a jazz fusion band. Barry gets to meet the band whose record he’s playing on, but it’s clear that they never even listened to the track he recorded, and when his record finally comes out, his contribution is not even used. Meanwhile Barry’s marriage is collapsing. But the issue ends on a happier note when Barry’s wife discovers a lost recording by a forgotten female jazz musician. The overall theme of this issue is that jazz is losing its cultural relevance, but is still capable of reinventing itself. I think some of the characters in this issue were mentioned in previous issues, but I can’t be bothered to check. It would, however, be interesting to reread this series and look for connections between each of the stories.
ALL-STAR WESTERN #5 (DC, 1971) – Outlaw:“The Hangman Never Loses!”, [W] Robert Kanigher, [A] Jim Aparo. Outlaw and his father finally reconcile, and Outlaw abandons his life of crime and becomes a sheriff. With the next issue Outlaw was replaced as the main feature by Billy the Kid, though the name Outlaw was still used on the covers. El Diablo: “The Devil Rides for Vengeance!”, [W] Robert Kanigher, [A] Alan Weiss. El Diablo battles an evil carpetbagger. Both these stories are disappointing because of the lack of Gil Kane or Gray Morrow art.
WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES #241 (Dell, 1960) – Donald Duck: “Rocks to Riches,” [W/A] Carl Barks. Donald buys a new rock tumbler, and Scrooge insists on using it for free. While that’s going on, the nephews discover a turtle whose shell holds a map to a buried treasure. This is one of a few Barks stories where Donald finds a priceless treasure, but he never seems to get any less poor. Other features in this issue are Scamp, Chip ‘n’ Dale, and Mickey Mouse. The Scamp story is kind of cute because it’s about returning lost kittens to their mother. The Mickey story is a redrawn version of a Gottfredson strip that guest-stars Thursday the “savage,” a grossly racist character. See here for a more detailed take on the original version of this story.
NOBLE CAUSES #29 (Image, 2007) – untitled, [W] Jay Faerber, [A] Yildiray Cinar. This issue focuses on the Capulet-Montague rivalry between the Nobles and the Blackthorne supervillain family. In recent years DC has tried to create a similar dynamic with the Allens and the Thawnes. The main plot is that one of the Blackthornes has died, and one of the Nobles is responsible. This series is just okay, but I’m curious to read more of it. Maybe it’s more interesting when read in the proper order.
L’AMOUR PROPRE (Albin Michel, 1983) – [W/A] Martin Veyron. This is a one-shot. Its full title is “L’amour propre ne le reste jamais très longtemps,” or “self-love never stays that way for very long.” I don’t quite understand the joke there. Anyway, this album is about the erotic escapades of a young Parisian man. When one of his lovers tells him about her G-spot, he tries to find the G-spot of every other woman he sleeps with, but he has limited success. At the end he marries his original lover and has a child. This comic is full of explicit sex scenes, but it’s a fairy tasteful kind of pornography that focuses on men’s inability to understand women. This is also an extremely ‘80s comic. The main character seems to be the French equivalent of a yuppie, and he spends the entire album having unprotected sex with multiple women, with no fear of getting AIDS. I want to read Veyron’s major solo series, Bernard Lermite.
BLACK PHOENIX #2 (Floating World, 2023) – “From Hell to Earth to Eternity,” [W/A] Rich Tommaso. This issue’s theme is romance stories with horror elements. In the longest serialized story, the goddess Venus makes a bet with Satan that she can find “a Hollywood couple who’re truly in love.” This serial is presented as if it were reprinted from older comics, and it’s partly told through cover illustrations with no accompanying story. Another story, “The Siren of the Swamp,” is set in a similar milieu to Tommaso’s Dry County and The Horror of Collier County. The stories are a mix of color and black-and-white, and in the color stories, Tommaso’s style of art reminds me a lot of Jaime Hernandez. Again, this comic is fascinating, but it takes quite a while to read.
2000 AD #2359 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd: as above. Sinfield admits to killing Hershey, one of Dredd’s only friends, because he couldn’t get at Dredd himself. In revenge, Dredd condemns Sinfield to a life of torture. Finally, Dredd tracks down Cervantes and finds him dead. The Fall of Deadworld: as above. Another waste of space. Helium: as above. The Sloggers’ city defends itself against the aerial bombing. Devil’s Railroad: as above. Isaac saves Cassandra from falling. In order to pay for the next stage on his trip, Palamon has to sell 10% of his soul. Feral & Foe: as above. The two elf characters fight each other. We meet another new monster: a roving eye, which is a literal eye on spider legs.
2000 AD #2360 (Rebellion, 2023) – Dredd:“Clanker Part 1,” [W] Ken Niemand, [A] Nick Dyer. The unnamed alien from progs 2287 and 2231 returns. Previously it took over a garbage grinder and a public toilet. Its new host is a robot Judge. I loved the previous two stories with this villain, and I’m glad to see it again. Helium: as above. The city summons a giant monster to fight the airship, allowing the protagonists to escape in a thopter. Devil’s Railroad: as above. Isaac’s mother tries to force Constance to have an abortion, but she refuses, and Isaac returns her to the back of the immigration line. Isaac’s mother discovers Palamon’s name. This is Peter Milligan’s most exciting story in years, and I look forward to reading more of it. Enemy Earth: “Book 3 Part 1,” [W] Cavan Scott, [A] Luke Horsman. The protagonists are now on their way to India, but their plane is attacked by a giant eagle. Enemy Earth is a lot more exciting than The Fall of Deadworld. Feral & Foe: as above. The two elves realize that they’re both on the same side.
PLOP! #10 (DC, 1975) – “A Ploppy Christmas,” [W] Steve Skeates, [A] Sergio Aragonés, etc. This story’s framing sequence has a Christmas theme, but the three main stories are a parody of Androcles and the Lion; a story about a mad scientist who raises a dragon; and a parody of Captain Marvel (Shazam). There are also a number of gag cartoons. Besides Aragonés, artists in this issue include Dave Manak and Ric Estrada.
YOUNG LOVE #81 (DC, 1970) – “3 Loves… 1 Broken Heart! Part II,” [W] unknown, [A] John Rosenberger. In a story continued from last issue, 18-year-old Diane falls in love with Paul, but doesn’t tell him that she’s a widow with an infant son! The story ends happily, but my God, what an insane premise. In the second story, the protagonist goes on a beach vacation where she meets two possible suitors, and all the other people at the beach are obsessed with debating which of them she’ll end up with. There are also a couple other stories, but the real highlight of this issue is the illustrations by Liz Berube/Safian. She had an incredible design sensibility, and it’s a shame that she hardly did any stories in comics format.
THUNDERBOLTS #172 (Marvel, 2012) – “Like Lightning Part 1,” [W] Jeff Parker, [A] Declan Shalvey. In their trip through time, the Thunderbolts reach their own recent past – in particular, the post-Heroes Reborn era when the Thunderbolts had just become public, but weren’t yet known to be supervillains. As a result, the past and present Thunderbolts have to fight each other! This is a fascinating premise, especially when the two Moonstones come into contact with each other. This issue also includes an interview with Kurt Busiek and Tom Brevoort.
THE WALKING DEAD #139 (Image, 2015) – “From the Edge of the World,” [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Charlie Adlard. Carl sneaks out of town to try to rescue his love interest, Lydia, from the Whisperers. Meanwhile, Elijah and Michonne are both reintroduced into the series. Besides the Whisperers plot, these issues are fairly slow-paced and meditative, and I kind of like that.
GRASS KINGS #10 (Boom!, 2017) – untitled, [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Tyler Jenkins. Another issue that makes little sense because of the indistinguishable characters and the confusing timeframe. One problem with this series is that it’s too long. I think it’s the longest of Matt Kindt’s series except for MIND MGMT, and its length makes it tedious, rather than epic.
BLOOD SWORD DYNASTY #2 (Jademan, 1989) – “The Lazy Kid,” [W/A] Ma Wing-Shing. Kim Hung, the son of the series’ original protagonist, intervenes in a battle between two elderly martial arts masters. This series, originally known as Chinese Hero, is one of the major works of Hong Kong manhua, but this English edition is hampered by ugly lettering and a questionable translation. Mike Baron is credited with the English-language script. I’m guessing that he didn’t do the translation himself, but merely adapted a literal translation prepared by someone else. In any event, Baron doesn’t seem to understand the cultural context behind the story, and his adaptation is difficult to follow.
BLACK PHOENIX #3 (Floating World, 2024) – “Are You Wearing a Costume?”, [W/A Rich Tommaso. The main theme this issue is superheroes, though there are also some non-superhero horror stories. In the longest story, a superheroine discovers that she has powers, but doesn’t know what those powers are. This was perhaps my least favorite of the three issues so far, but each issue of Black Phoenix offers a huge amount of excellent work by a masterful cartoonist.
SATELLITE SAM #6 (Image, 2014) – “Women in Trouble,” [W] Matt Fraction, [A] Howard Chaykin. A murder mystery set in the early days of the television industry. It’s kind of like The Fade Out (to be reviewed shortly), but it’s unmistakably in Chaykin’s style, with lots of sex and cheesecake, and excellent spotting of blacks. This issue also offers a realistic-seeming portrayal of the process of filming live-action TV. Satellite Sam may be Chaykin’s last great work. I don’t have much interest in reading his more recent comics.
BATMAN ’66 23 (DC, 2015) – “The Groovy Grave of Solomon Grundy,” [W] Jeff Parker, [A] Brent Schoonover, and “The Final Form,” [W] Jeff Parker, [A] Giancarlo Caracuzzo. This issue introduces the Batman ’66 versions of Solomon Grundy and Clayface. Both these stories are entertaining, but this is the type of series where if you’ve read one of them, you’ve read them all. To be fair, this is also true of Flaming Carrot, for instance, but Flaming Carrot’s formula is more original.
ANGELA: ASGARD’S ASSASSIN #6 (Marvel, 2015) – untitled, [W] Kieron Gillen, [A] Phil Jimenez. Angela finally returns the baby to Asgard, and the baby is named Laussa. Then Malekith appears and tells a story, which is told in an inset sequence illustrated by Stephanie Hans. Marvel’s Angela comics were all rather disappointing, and Marvel seems to have mostly abandoned this character.
GROO THE WANDERER #2 (Pacific, 1983) – “The Missive,” [W/A] Sergio Aragonés, [A] Mark Evanier. Groo kills a man named Elmy and his companions (this is a rare case where Groo kills a person with a name), and then gets hired to do Elmy’s job, as a bodyguard to a messenger. Groo manages to get the messenger to his destination, but the message says that the recipient should have Groo killed. Mayhem ensues. Taranto, one of Groo’s earliest recurring supporting characters, makes a cameo appearance, and there’s a Sage backup story. The earliest Groo comics are weird because the art style is rather crude, and Groo’s personality is not well developed. He’s stupid, but not quite as ridiculously so, and he talks in a more normal style. Compared to other Groo comics, this issue includes an unusual number of naked people.
THE FADE OUT #11 (Image, 2015) – “Anyone Else But Me,” [W] Ed Brubaker, [A] Sean Phillips. The two protagonists, Charlie and Gil, sneak into the old magnate Kamp’s house, only to find that Kamp dead in his bathtub. As they’re trying to escape, Gil is shot by the man who may have killed Kamp. This is an exciting issue, though it’s a bit hard to understand since I’ve only read three of the preceding issues.
MARGIE #2 (Dell, 1962) – “Opening Night,” [W] Don Segall, [A] Henry Scarpelli. Perhaps the worst teen humor comic I’ve ever read. The writing and characterization are wooden; the writer is content to just report what happens, without conveying any sense of the characters’ emotion. The plot, about a school play, is pointless, and it relies on plot-induced stupidity. Henry Scarpelli was a longtime artist of both real Archie comics, and imitation ones like Date with Debbi; however, he draws this issue in a realistic style, which is far less effective than the Archie style. This was in fact the only issue of Margie. The first issue was Four Color #1307, and it’s no surprise that there wasn’t a third issue.
THE FLYING A’S RANGE RIDER #11 (Dell, 1955) – “Hangman’s Moon,” [W] unknown, [A] Tony Sgroi. Some lawmen try to break up a conspiracy to smuggle criminals into the Cherokee Strip. According to the story, the Cherokee Strip was known as a lawless place because it was outside of federal jurisdiction. I don’t know if this is true, though the Cherokee Strip really did exist. This story is a bit hard to follow because it’s tough to remember the characters’ names. The backup story, which continues onto the back cover, is about a land dispute caused when a stream changes course. Tony Sgroi was a talented Western artist, but he left comics for animation in the ‘60s.
G.I. JOE #12 (Marvel, 1983) – “Three Strikes for Snake-Eyes,” [W] Larry Hama, [A] Mike Vosburg. Some of the Joes engage in a car chase, and then some of the others travel to Siera Gordo, a fictional Latin American country, to investigate a smuggling scheme. The characters in this issue’s second plotline include Dr. Venom, Kwinn (named after the Bob Dylan song “Quinn the Eskimo”), and Scar-Face. All these characters, plus General Flagg, were killed in issue 19. Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe had an unusual number of character deaths, perhaps because there were so many characters to begin with.
NANCY #158 (Dell, 1958) – “Sluggo Gets the Bird” etc., [W] unknown, [A] Irving Tripp. I just read Bill Griffith’s Three Rocks, a biography of Ernie Bushmiller, and that inspired me to read this comic. This issue is from slightly before John Stanley’s run on the series, and it lacks John Stanley’s brilliant storytelling skill. Instead, each story is just a series of loosely linked gags. Compared to John Stanley’s Nancy, this issue is much less interesting, although it’s more faithful to Bushmiller’s style.
ACTION COMICS #882 (DC, 2009) – “The Hunt for Reactron Part 3,” [W] Greg Rucka, [A] Sterling Gates. Supergirl, Chris Kent and Thara Ak-Var battle Sam Lane and Reactron, who killed Supergirl’s father. That last part is according to TVTropes; it’s not clear in the comic. Another thing that’s not obvious from the comic is that Chris and Thara are using the identities of Nightwing and Flamebird. Superman himself is not in this issue. There’s also a Captain Atom backup story.
STORY WITHOUT A HERO (Cinebook, 1977/2018) – [W] Jean Van Hamme, [A] Dany. This is another one-shot. It was first published in the Journal de Tintin, and was Dany’s first realistic work, following Olivier Rameau. In this album, a plane crashes in the Brazilian Amazon, and the survivors have to overcome their internecine conflicts in order to survive. As the title indicates, this comic has an ensemble cast rather than a single hero, and much of the interest of the album comes from the personality clashes between the various survivors. In the climactic scene, one survivor, a young boy, has to kill another one, a corrupt general. This is an extremely gripping and realistic album. This edition also includes a prose epilogue which is allegedly written by Largo Winch, another of Van Hamme’s protagonists. The epilogue is a lead-in to the sequel, Twenty Years Later, which has also been translated by Cinebook.
2000 AD #1855 (Rebellion, 2013) – Dredd: “Prey Part 1,” [W] T.C. Eglington, [A] Karl Richardson. The judges are required to support an aid mission to Mega-City One’s refugee camps, which have become breeding grounds for disease. The camps are obvious targets for crime, and at the end of the chapter, one of the refugees discovers some eviscerated corpses. Brass Sun: “The Diamond Age Part 6,” [W] Ian Edginton, [A] I.N.J. Culbard. The protagonists search for a particular book in the library, but the book they want has been selectively censored. Disappointingly, all the books in the library are accounts of the royal family’s lives. Flesh: “Badlanders Part 6,” [W] Pat Mills, [A] James McKay. I’ve never understood this story arc, and its crude art style seems inappropriate for 2000 AD. Aquila: “Where All Roads Lead Part 5,” [W] Gordon Rennie, [A] Patrick Goddard. Aquila’s battle with the Veiled Virgin is narrated in a flashback. Then Nero offers to make Aquila his official executioner. Damnation Station: “The Tail of the Dragon Part 3,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Mark Harrison. I don’t understand this story either, and Mark Harrison’s artwork is not effective.
RUSE #5 (CrossGen, 2002) – untitled, [W] Mark Waid, [A] Butch Guice. Archard’s assistant Emma investigates a murderer of sex workers, while also becoming attracted to David Kingsley, the detective on the case. In the end Emma realizes that David himself is the killer. I may have read this issue before in trade paperback form, but if so, it was a long time ago, and nothing about this issue was familiar to me at all. Ruse was probably the single best CrossGen title.
THE PHANTOM #1806 (Frew, 2018) – “Guran’s Secret,” [W] Eirik Ildahl, [A] Ozcan Eralp. Old Moz tells Rex and Tom-Tom (the Phantom’s foster son and his friend) the story of how Guran got his scar. Moz’s story occupies the bulk of the issue. According to Moz, Guran obtained the scar while fighting his twin brother Zuran for the chieftainship of the Bandar, but during the struggle, Guran’s fiancee Yohimba was killed. The flashback story has a strangely upbeat tone, considering the tragic events it depicts. When Rex and Tom-Tom ask Guran to confirm the story, he says he never had a brother, so the reader is left unsure as to whether Moz just made the story up.
DENNIS THE MENACE BONUS MAGAZINE SERIES #95 (Fawcett, 1971) – “Pitter Patter Painter” etc., [W] Fred Toole, [A] Owen Fitzgerald. This issue consists of reprints from the main Dennis the Menace title. In these stories Dennis “helps” his parents paint, appears in a school play, goes golfing with his parents, and visits a demonstration of Native American dances. This last story has extremely problematic implications, since the dancers come from the “St. John’s Indian School,” which appears to be some sort of boarding school. At the time of this comic, it was still legal for Native American children to be removed from their parents and placed in boarding schools, which were instruments of cultural genocide. The saving grace of this story is that at least it acknowledges that Native Americans weren’t extinct, and that they spoke fluent English rather than Tonto talk.
HAWKWORLD #24 (DC, 1992) – “Escape from Tanagar” chapters 10-12, [W] John Ostrander, [A] Graham Nolan. On Thanagar, the Shadowlord, who is obviously Katar Hol, is fomenting a rebellion. On Earth, Fel Andar, an evil brute, is posing as Katar. Fel Andar originated as a solution to a continuity problem resulting from Crisis. Hawkworld is one of John Ostrander’s best works, and I ought to collect the rest of this run.
HELLBLAZER #133 (Vertigo, 1999) – “Son of Man Part 5,” [W] Garth Ennis, [A] John Higgins. Garth Ennis’s first Hellblazer run is his masterpiece – in my opinion it’s far better than Preacher. But this issue, from his later return to the series, is an example of the sort of awful crap that he’s been squandering his talents on. “Son of Man Part 5” is full of body horror and cheap laughs, and it shows no genuine passion. It’s probably the worst Hellblazer comic I’ve ever read.
FRANKA VOL. 8 (Humanoids, 1986/1987) – “Les Dents du Dragon Tome 2,” [W/A] Henk Kuijpers. This is a French translation of an album first published in Dutch. Franka, like Yoko Tsuno, is a vivacious female adventurer. She and her scientist sidekick, Ava, have traveled to Southeast Asia in pursuit of an alleged dinosaur or dragon. After multiple plot twists, Franka, Ava, and an enemy of theirs get trapped in a volcano crater which contains a “lost world” full of dinosaurs. The author gives a plausible explanation of how the dinosaurs got there. Ava then changes from a hero to a villain, as she sabotages Franka’s attempts to escape from the crater, so that she can continue her research into the dinosaurs. In the end, Franka and the other two escape, but the crater is destroyed, and Ava’s evidence of the dinosaurs is lost. This album is a thrilling adventure story, and Kuijpers’s Clear Line artwork is gorgeous. Based on this album, I’m not sure why he’s not considered a Clear Line master, on the same level as Chaland or Swarte or Ted Benoît.
THE WALKING DEAD #133 (Image, 2014) – “Impending Doom,” [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Charlie Adlard. Carl gets a goodbye letter from his potential love interest, Anna, who shows up just once more in the series. Carl starts his apprenticeship and meets another love interest, Lydia, though we don’t learn her name yet. The Whisperers capture a couple more of Alexandria’s residents.
BIG PLANET COMICS (Big Planet, 2017) – [E] Jared Smith. An anthology published by the comic book store chain of the same name. This comic offers an interesting variety of art styles, but much of the artwork is amateurish. Among the creators, the only names I recognize are Robin Ha, Kevin Panetta, and Carla Speed McNeil, and the latter only did a one-pager.
CARTOON DIALECTICS #2 (Uncivilized, 2020?) – untitled, [W/A] Tom Kaczynski. A postapocalyptic story, intercut with a monologue on possible ways the world could end. This comic is not quite as fascinating as other issues of the series, but it’s still quite interesting. I’d like to study Kaczynski’s work in more detail. Maybe I could write about his “flat ontology” theory of comics, if I need another project.
THE CLONE CONSPIRACY #3 (Marvel, 2017) – untitled, [W] Dan Slott, [A] Jim Cheung. An overly complicated story with two separate plotlines, one starring Kaine, the other starring Peter. At the end, the Jackal takes off his mask and reveals that he’s not Miles Warren but Ben Reilly. If nothing else, the Clone Conspiracy is certainly better than the original Clone Saga.
ICEMAN #3 (Marvel, 2017) – untitled, [W] Sina Grace, [A] Alessandro Vitti. Bobby has dinner with his father, a bigoted old dickhead, and his mother, a spineless enabler. Their houses is invaded by anti-mutant terrorists who hold Bobby’s parents hostage. If I were Bobby, I’d be tempted to tell the terrorists to go ahead and shoot the hostages. At the end of the issue, some other mutants repair the damage to Bobby’s parents’ house, and Bobby’s mother acts a bit nicer to them, but that doesn’t excuse her for facilitating Bobby’s father’s abuse. William Drake has since died, but it happened in an online Infinity Comic that doesn’t seem to have been released in print.
HELLBLAZER #13 (DC, 1988) – “On the Beach,” [W] Jamie Delano, [A] Richard Piers Raynor & Mark Buckingham. While Constantine is visiting the beach, a nearby nuclear power plant explodes. The only survivors of the disaster are Constantine himself and a young woman. They conceive a child together, but it turns out to be a two-headed baby seal. Then we realize that this was all a dream. On the first page, there’s a panel depicting several actual British comics, such as Eagle and Look & Learn.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #40 (DC, 2015) – “Superpower – The Dynamic Duo,” [W] Peter Tomasi, [A] Patrick Gleason. Damian has recently gained superpowers, but he drains them while fighting a mysterious alien creature. We then learn that the robot was dug up from the Justice League’s evidence room, and the whole thing was a setup by Batman to force Damian to waste his powers. Despite the deception, this is a cute story. In another comic that I’ll review later, we see how Damian got the powers to begin with.
FICTION SQUAD #2 (Boom!, 2014) – untitled, [W] Paul Jenkins, [A] Ramon Bachs. The protagonist, Frankie, is a detective operating in multiple fictional universes. This issue, he’s investigating the death of the Wicked Witch of the East, but his superiors are insistent on framing Humpty Dumpty for it. I’ve never cared much for Paul Jenkins’s writing, but this is a cute and entertaining issue.
INCORRUPTIBLE #15 (Boom!, 2011) – untitled, [W] Mark Waid, [A] Marcio Takara. Max Damage teams up with some superheroes who are trying to fix the town of Coalville’s water supply. But his psychotic sidekick, Annie, murders the leader of the superheroes, and Max has to arrest her. The main problem with this series is that it’s too obviously formatted for digital publication. I do like the scene where the rich people are literaly dining on gourmet food while the ordinary citizens starve.
SCALPED #13 (Vertigo, 2008) – “Dead Mothers Part 1,” [W] Jason Aaron, [A] R.M. Guera. Chief Red Crow finds the dead body of Gina Red Crow. Meanwhile, Dash Bad Horse is on a drug bust when he discovers a dead woman and her five orphaned children. There’s a rather grim silent sequence at the end where the children are told that their mother is dead. She was clearly an unfit mother, but of course her kids don’t know any better. I ought to collect more of Scalped, though I do think it’s unfortunate that it’s a non-own-voices depiction of Native American life.
INVESTIGATORS FCBD 2020 (First Second, 2020) – untitled, [W/A] John Patrick Green. A preview of a middle grade graphic novel about alligator detectives. This is a silly comic whose humor relies on dumb puns, and I have no interest in reading any more of it. But it does seem like a good comic for a very young audience.
NIGHTWING #113 (LGY #300) (DC, 2024) – “Nightwing,” [W] Tom Taylor w/ Marv Wolfman, [A] Daniele Di Nicuolo w/ Bruno Redondo. Dick receives the key to the city, with all his friends watching in person or on TV, and then he takes everyone out to dinner at Marv and George’s Pizza. The scene where Nightwing meets Marv was written by Marv Wolfman himself, and it’s a beautiful tribute to him and to the late George Pérez. In this sequence it’s indicated that the fictional George, like the real one, has passed away. The backup story, in which Nightwing defuses a bomb, is kind of lackluster.
TRANSFORMERS #7 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Daniel Warren Johnson, [A] Jorge Corona. Soundwave successfully challenges Starscream for the Decepticons’ leadership, and the Autobots deal with the aftermath of last issue’s events. Jorge Corona’s art in this issue is gorgeous, but this issue wasn’t as gripping as the last six.
ROXXON PRESENTS THOR #1 (Marvel, 2024) – “Hate is a Color Called… Green!”, [W] Al Ewing, [A] Greg Land. This may be the best comic book of the year so far. It represents the in-universe comic book that Dario Agger creates as a weapon against Thor, as depicted in Immortal Thor #9. Roxxon’s version of Thor is a mindless dudebro who blindly supports capitalism. His secret identity is Chad Hammer, and his opponents are strawman protesters whose cause is carefully left unspecified. “Thor”’s adventures provide many opportunities for product placement. The whole comic is a brilliant piece of anticapitalist critique. Greg Land is an inspired choice of artist, “becuase the comic is supposed to feel hollow and Land’s art is the most hollow art there is” (zzzPessimist). But perhaps the most brilliant touch is that the comic includes fake ads for Roxxon products, interspersed with real ads. In reading the comic, I initially skipped over these ads, because I was conditioned to – the comic uses the old-fashioned “story continues on Nth page following” blurbs. But then I did a double-take and noticed that some of the ads looked weird. This technique is taken to an even higher level when Dario Agger takes over a page of the comic and speaks directly to the reader. In sum, this comic is incredible, and Marvel has rarely if ever parodied itself so honestly. D
COBRA COMMANDER #4 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Andrea Milana. Cobra Commander, the Dreadnoks, and Nemesis Enforcer all fight each other. Cobra Commander wins, and he gets one of the Dreadnoks to tell him Destro’s name. Williamson’s version of Cobra Commander is much scarier and less buffoonish than Hama’s version.
DUDLEY DATSON AND THE FOREVER MACHINE #1 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Scott Snyder, [A] Jamal Igle. Teenage Dudley Datson wants to be a great inventor, but he also has to support his sick father. As a result of some complex events that I can’t quite remember, Dudley gets thrust into an adventure involving time travel and a talking dog. Out of Scott Snyder’s Comixology Unlimited titles published by Dark Horse, this is probably my favorite. It’s a fascinating meditation on the topic of invention and creativity, and it has a compelling protagonist. Dudley is a bit like Moon Girl, in that he’s a black scientist, but his story is not primarily about blackness.
FANTASTIC FOUR #19 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Perfect Storm,” [W] Ryan North, [A] Carlos Gomez. This issue is a parody of film noir. Most of it is colored in grayscale, with Sue’s red dress and policemen’s blue uniforms as the only color. The plot is that Sue Storm contacts Detective Alicia Masters to investigate the disappearance of her boyfriend Reed Richards. We meet the rest of the FF, and a few other characters like Namor and the Mole Man. Eventually we discover that this whole setup is the result of the Trapster obtaining a Cosmic Cube. The Trapster is a joke of a villain, but this story shows that he can be surprisingly dangerous. This is another brilliant issue. Part of the genius of Ryan North’s FF is that each story feels totally different.
MS. MARVEL: MUTANT MENACE #2 (Marvel, 2024) – “Starstruck,” [W] Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada, [A] Scott Godlewski. Kamala has to help Lila Cheney rescue her fans from Mojo. This issue is a lot of fun. Kamala and Lila’s interactions are entertaining, there are some funny homages to things like Spirited Away and Yellow Submarine, and the whole story is a critique of the current entertainment industry. “Starstruck” is very much in the spirit of earlier Mojo stories like Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem. Red Dagger reappears at the end of the issue.
UNCANNY VALLEY #1 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Tony Fleecs, [A] Dave Wachter. Twelve-year-old Oliver is the son of a single mother who works as a travel nurse. The issue begins as he’s suspended from school for various antics, including jumping off a bridge, bouncing off the walls, and starting a fire. We slowly begin to realize that Oliver operates according to cartoon physics, so when he jumps off the bridge, he’s not hurt, but he creates a hole in the ground in his exact shape. And when he eats hot peppers, his head catches fire. Then Oliver’s house is attacked by cartoon crows, and he’s saved by a cartoon character who claims to be his paternal grandfather. This premise – a hero who’s half human and half cartoon – is absolutely brilliant. What makes this story even more brilliant is Dave Wachter’s ability to draw in realistic and cartoon styles at once. Technically Oliver and his mother are also cartoon characters, but they’re drawn in a realistic style, while the grandfather is drawn like Yosemite Sam, and we can clearly tell that they’re “real” and he isn’t. This is an incredible debut issue, and I’m excited for issue 2.
TITANS #10 (DC, 2024) – “Dark-Winged Queen Part 3,” [W] Tom Taylor, [A] Lucas Meyer. Aqualad rejoins the team. The Titans fight Raven’s brother Trilogy, and the fake Raven cuts Trilogy’s hand off and imprisons him in the same place as the real Raven. This series has had some excellent action scenes, but I wish it had more emphasis on the Titans’ personal lives.
I HEART SKULL-CRUSHER! #1 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Josie Campbell, [A] Alessio Zonno. In a postapocalyptic future, teenage Trini is obsessed with becoming a “Screaming Pain Ball” player, like her idol Skull-Crusher. When an open-qualifying tournament is announced, Trini needs to form a team, so she kidnaps a famous coach. Then when two bandits attack her, she conscripts the bandits as additional team members. This comic is very fun and anarchic, and it makes good use of the manga style of art. It’s also surprisingly dark, given that it was published under the Boom! Box label. I Heart Skull-Crusher is full of brutal violence, and Trini carries around her dead parents’ skulls and talks to them.
DARK SPACES: DUNGEON #5 (IDW, 2024) – untitled, [W] Scott Snyder, [A] Hayden Sherman. Madoc and Tyler finally rescue Cal and kill the villain. Then when Madoc and Tyler meet again later, Madoc claims to have realized that Tyler is the real villain, and he’s been constructing the dungeons as a way of inflicting psychological torture on people. The issue ends with Madoc trapped in another of Tyler’s prisons. I’m honestly not sure whether this ending really “happened” or not. On the one hand, if we believe Madoc’s claims, then Tyler kidnapped his own son, and made a perfect pretense of being traumatized by a crime that he himself had committed. Also, somehow Tyler has been keeping people in prison for multiple decades, when he himself appears to only be in his forties at most. This ending is also kind of anticlimactic, since it turns Dark Spaces: Dungeon into just a less funny version of Rumpus Room. On the other hand, it seems to make more narrative sense if the villain is Tyler himself, rather than just some random dude. Either way, the outcome is the same: the series ends with Madoc back in prison, whether it’s a real prison, or one created by his own mind.
PHANTOM ROAD #10 (Image, 2024) – “Billy Bear One,” [W] Jeff Lemire, [A] Gabriel H. Walta. Theresa is taken off the case and recalled to Washington, but she and Deputy Donnie continue investigating anyway, and they find a Billy Bear warehouse where Theresa was held captive as a child. In the warehouse they meet a man named Hugo Hamm who welcomes them to “Project Jackknife.” Meanwhile, Dom and Birdie are attacked by an unfamiliar man in a red cloak. Theresa has emerged as the third protagonist of the series, and her half of this issue is much more interesting than Dom and Birdie’s half.
SPIDER-BOY #6 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Man Upstairs,” [W] Dan Slott, [A] Paco Medina. Madame Monstrosity turns Christina into a pigeon. Then Christina watches a film, “So You’re Now a Humanimal,” that explains Madame Monstrosity’s methods. The film sequence is drawn by a different artist, and it’s very funny. At the end of the issue, we discover that Madame Monstrosity’s husband has had his body switched with an owl. According to this issue, Madame Monstrosity’s last name is Stillwell. It appears that she’s the mother of Farley Stillwell, the creator of the Scorpion, but I forget when this information was revealed.
I HATE FAIRYLAND #13 (Image, 2024) – “I Hate Fairyland: The Movie” (my title), [W] Skottie Young, [A] Brett Bean. The “Fairamount” film company decides to make a movie about Gert, and not surprisingly, the movie is a complete disaster that bears little resemblance to its source material. This issue is a hilarious parody of the film industry.
JUSTICE DUCKS #2 (Dynamite, 2024) – “Day of the Maven,” [W] Roger Langridge, [A] Carlo Lauro. This issue is a Doctor Who parody, with guest-stars The Maven and Tulip (i.e. the Doctor and Rose), and villains based on the Master and the Daleks. I suspect that this joke is likely to go over the heads of the comic’s younger readers, but even if the reader doesn’t get the references, “Day of the Maven” is still an entertaining adventure story. So far Justice Ducks is not among my favorite works by Langridge, but everything he writes is of high quality.
BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES #5 (IDW, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Patrick Horvath. Sam has a vision where her head is pulled off, and snakes emerge from her body. Then she witnesses a fight between two non-anthropomorphic bears, which may be another vision. At the end of the issue she returns to Woodbrook with a new plan to deal with the other killer. This issue was much weirder than the last four.
BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #26 (DC, 2024) – “Impossible Part 1,” [W] Mark Waid, [A] Dan Mora. Batman, Superman and their imp counterparts team up against various villains and their corresponding imps. This is a hilarious issue with all sorts of funny moments. My only complaint is that the imps look too realistic, and Dan Mora could have done more to visually distinguish them from the “real” characters, as Dave Wachter does with the cartoon characters in Uncanny Valley.
JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER: DEAD IN AMERICA #4 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W] Simon Spurrier, [A] Aaron Campbell. Constantine and his companions visit the town of Masaville, which is the site of a notorious scandal: six high school football players raped a girl and got off scot-free, while the girl vanished and was never seen again. Constantine uses Morpheus’s sand to force everyone in town to relive the girl’s agony. This issue is a powerful unpacking of the insanity of rural America. Sadly it’s based on an actual incident, the Steubenville rape case.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #2 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Peach Momoko. Hisako has an adventure with a new character named Mei Igarashi who’s a Japanese version of Storm. This is another fascinating issue. My criticism is that this series still doesn’t feel like an X-Men story at all, and Ultimate X-Men seems like an inappropriate title for it.
ACTION COMICS #1064 (DC, 2024) – “House of Brainiac Part 1: Brainiac Attacks!”, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Rafa Sandoval. Lois’s rare day off is ruined when Metropolis is invaded by an army of Czarnians, who look and act just like Lobo And they’re just the vanguard of an invasion of Coluans. This crossover is only mildly interesting, but this issue is fun because of the Czarnians.
SUPERMAN #13 (DC, 2024) – “House of Brainiac Part 2: Last Sons,” [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Rafa Sandoval. This issue is essentially the second half of Action Comics #1064. Superman teams up with the original Lobo, and the Brainiacs hold the rest of the Superman family hostage. On the next-to-last page, Supergirl alludes to Brainiac 5.
JAY GARRICK: THE FLASH #6 (DC, 2024) – “Life’s Terms,” [W] Jeremy Adams, [A] Diego Olortegui. Jay fights some sharks with laser beams, who unfortunately appear on just one page, and then he rescues Judy and defeats Dr. Elemental. This miniseries was okay, but it was no substitute for Adams’s run on the regular Flash series.
CAPTAIN MARVEL #7 (Marvel, 2024) – “Bonds to Break,” [W] Alyssa Wong, [A] Jan Bazaldua. Another issue full of pointless fight scenes with an indecipherable plot. Alyssa Wong has chosen to focus this series on Yuna rather than Carol, and that’s a reasonable decision, but she’s failed to make Yuna a compelling protagonist. I’ve had enough of this series, and this will be my last issue.
HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER #22 (Boom!, 2024) – “The Butcher’s War Part Two,” [W] Tate Brombal, [A] Werther Dell’Edera. The House of Slaughter tries to use Jace’s kidnapped student, Sunny, as bait to lure Jace out. But the operation fails, because Jace has made arrangements with Sunny in advance. This is an exciting issue, but I don’t quite understand what happens at the climax. I don’t get what Sunny did to throw a wrench in the plans.
I HEART SKULL-CRUSHER #2 (Boom!, 2024) – as above. Trini tries to recruit Cutter Dan, a skilled amateur player, as her new teammate, but he joins another team instead. But when the other team are all turned into mutant zombies, Dan joins Trini instead, and their team advances to the next round. This series is fun, but I still think its level of violence is unusual for a Boom! Box title. Like, in Screaming Death Ball, you get points for killing opposing players. The best line in this issue is “Becoming a mutant does not mean the person is dead. So no points for either team.”
THE CABINET #3 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] David Ebeltoft, [A] Jordan Hart. Avani and her sidekick continue their search for the doodad, and a new villain is introduced who has a braided beard and keeps saying “little field clerk.” By the end of this issue, Avani still hasn’t found the doodad, so this series continues to suffer from overly decompressed pacing.
HELEN OF WYNDHORN #2 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] Tom King, [A] Bilquis Evely. This issue gives us a better look at Barnabas, who really does seem like an elderly version of Conan. We also learn more about Helen’s relationship with her late father. At the end of the issue, Barnabas and Helen go on a quest to return a mythological creature called a “flyune” to its home. Helen of Wyndhorn is a fascinating series, and it could be Tom King’s best comic in a long time, if he manages not to screw it up.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #8 (DC, 2024) – “Cult of Man-Bat Part 2,” [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Nikola Cizmesija. Flatline betrays Damian in order to help out her sister. Batman and Shush encounter Man-Bat. Just like this series’s first storyline, “Cult of Man-Bat” is hampered by an overly complicated plot with too many characters, though it has good characterization.
NIGHT THRASHER #2 (Marvel, 2024) – “Remix Part 2: If You Don’t Know, Now You Know,” [W] J. Holtham, [A] Nelson Dániel. Rage leads his gang in an anti-gentrification riot. Thrash tries to stop Rage, but ends up causing the property damage he was trying to prevent. So far this is not a great series, but it appeals to my nostalgia for the original New Warriors title.
MOON MAN #2 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi) & Kyle Higgins, [A] Marco Locati. Ramon does a TV interview where he’s forced to parrot his evil boss’s company line. Then he has another superhero adventure, and at the end, we learn that one of his fellow astronauts has died. This issue’s art is less impressive than last issue’s, but I like Moon Man’s anticapitalist angle and its depiction of the two brothers’ relationship.
BATMAN/DYLAN DOG #2 (DC, 2024) – “To Hell and Back,” [W] Roberto Recchioni, [A] Gigi Cavenago & Werther Dell’Edera. After some more fight scenes, we learn that the Joker is trying to resurrect Christopher Killex, and Batman and Dylan visit Madame Trelovski, who looks like Agatha Harkness. Killex and Trelovski are two more Dylan Dog characters that I haven’t heard of. In order to learn whether Killex is still dead or not, Batman and Dylan have to go to hell, with John Constantine as their guide. Constantine makes a speech about the decline of London and society in general, then the heroes encounter Etrigan the Demon and the ghost of Epicurus the philosopher. This is another extremely entertaining issue with beautiful art and exciting action scenes. I’m not sure I approve of the translation “Jumping Judas!” for Dylan’s catchphrase “Giuda ballerino!”
HACK/SLASH: BACK TO SCHOOL #4 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Zoe Thorogood. Cassie starts a romance with a fellow student, but just as she’s finally feeling happy, she goes insane or something, and she kills all the other students. Then Vlad has Cassie’s memory wiped so she forgets all the events of the series. I honestly don’t understand this issue, but the ending is poignant, and Zoe Thorogood’s art is amazing.
SINISTER SONS #3 (DC, 2024) – “Bad Sons Rising Part 3,” [W] Peter Tomasi, [A] Vasco Georgiev. The man inside the whale identifies himself as Major Tom. Also, he’s named the whale Melville, which is awesome. Lor-Zod, Sinson and Major Tom try and fail to escape the whale, and to make matters worse, the whale is attacked by space vampires. This story doesn’t take itself too seriously.
ANIMAL POUND #3 (Boom!, 2024) – “Piggy Performs,” [W] Tom King, [A] Peter Gross. A variety of different dogs and cats suceed each other as president. Finally Piggy, the dog who’s been performing for the camera, is elected. I assume he’s meant to remind us of Trump. Piggy hides in his office, then when he comes out, the first thing he does is to eat one of the rabbits. This issue has the opposite problem to The Cabinet: it’s too fast-paced. Until the end, it feels like a plot summary rather than a story. Also, I’m not sure how long each presidential term lasts, but it seems like more of the original cats and dogs should have died of old age by now. The interesting thing about Animal Pound is that it’s sort of a logical successor to Animal Castle, as Animal Castle is to Animal Farm. The question Animal Pound raises is, after the animals get rid of Napoleon or Silvio, how do they create a functioning democracy? However, Tom King is a less politically sophisticated writer than Xavier Dorison, let alone George Orwell.
DEADWEIGHTS #1 (Ahoy, 2024) – untitled, [W] Tyrone Finch, [A] Sebastian Piriz. Two ne’er-do-well supervillains get sick of fighting superheroes, and they decide to get a real job. However, their efforts are frustrated when the local superheroes attack them on sight. I’m not familiar with this writer, but Deadweights has an interesting premise, and I like it so far.
UNDERHEIST #3 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] David Lapham, [W] Maria Lapham. An assassin kidnaps the main character and takes him to the tunnels. Then the assassin lets the main character go, but when he returns home, he finds that his pregnant girlfriend (I think) has been mutilated. And then some more weird stuff happens. This issue is very hard to understand. Also, Underheist seems like basically the same comic as Stray Bullets, except with some extra violence.
BATMAN: OFF-WORLD #4 (DC, 2024) – “I Am the Storm,” [W] Jason Aaron, [A] Doug Mahnke. Batman fights his way through the Blakksun mercenaries, until he encounters an opponent he can’t beat, an unnamed Thanagarian. Ione refuses to help Batman against the Blakksuns, but after the Thanagarian defeats Batman, it’s hinted that Ione is going to change her mind and save him. I’m not enjoying this series as much as other Jason Aaron comics.
BLUE BOOK 1947 #3 (Dark Horse, 2024) – untitled, [W] James Tynion IV, [A] Michael Avon Oeming. Another dry account of UFO history. This issue brings us up to the point when Roswell, New Mexico becomes a center of UFO theories. There’s a boring backup story, by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips, about a New Jersey ghost legend.
GOLGOTHA MOTOR MOUNTAIN #2 (IDW, 2024) – “The Pistolero,” [W] Matthew Erman & Lonnie Nadler, [A] Robbi Rodriguez. The alien specimen causes the two protagonists, Vernon and Elwood, to suffer strange visions and transformations. This story is also partly a tribute to Cincinnati; it begins by quoting Longfellow’s “Song of the Vine”, which helped popularize Cincinnati’s nickname of the Queen City. I spent two years in the Cincinnati area, and they were pretty awful years, but Cincinnati is a beautiful city, and I feel some nostalgia for it. This issue has a backup story which is attributed to a certain T.A. Toshiro, but I assume it’s really by Rodriguez.
JILL AND THE KILLERS #4 (Oni, 2024) – untitled, [W] Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, [A] Roberta Ingranata. We discover that the real murderer is not the coach himself, but his elderly mother. Jill’s dad shows her a bunch of other boxes representing other unsolved cases. I enjoyed the first issue of this miniseries, but it went downhill from there, and if there’s a second story arc, I’m not sure I want to read it.
RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #4 (Marvel, 2024) – “Reawakening,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Luciano Vecchio. Magneto comes back to life, then fights some Sentinels. This was a boring issue, and I shouldn’t have wasted my time on this miniseries.
JULIUS CORENTIN ACQUEFACQUES VOL. 3 (Delcourt, 1993) – “Le Processus,” [W/A] Marc-Antoine Mathieu. “Acquefacques” is a backwards phonetic spelling of “Kafka.” In this album Julius wakes up to find another version of himself sleeping in his bed. Then he goes to work (on a bicycle taxi that travels on ropes strung between buildings), where, due to a scheduling error, he’s subjected to an operation to cure him of “ceiling syndrome.” Things get even weirder from there, as Julius has a dream where he gains the ability to walk along the ceiling of each panel, and he sees both panels we’ve already seen, and panels that haven’t happened yet. And then he steps outside of the page completely, and finally he becomes the second version of himself that appeared at the start of the book. The overarching theme of this book is spirals (which is also the theme of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, but in a different way). There’s a recurring visual motif of spirals; the time-loop plot is structured as a spiral; and most stunningly, page 37 has an actual spiral cut into it. This is hard to explain without an image, but see here. Besides maybe Chris Ware, Marc-Antoine Mathieu has gone further than any other cartoonist in unpacking the materiality of the comics medium and the book format. His books are essential reading, and it’s a shame that only a few of them are available in English. The problem with publishing Julius Corentin Acquefacques into English is that some of its unique physical features might be expensive to produce. And it wouldn’t make sense to publish this series digitally, because it’s print-specific: it includes effects that are dependent on the specific material properties of print.
2000 AD #1856 (Rebellion, 2013) – Dredd: “Prey Part 2,” [W] T.C. Eglington, [A] Karl Richardson. Dredd encounters a giant hairy monster that’s attacking aid workers. Brass Sun: “The Diamond Age Part 7,” [W] Ian Edginton, [A] I.N.J. Culbard. The protagonists meet a man who’s a living instruction manual. He passes on his instructions and dies. Flesh: “Badlanders Part 7,” [W] Pat Mills, [A] James McKay. Eight candidates audition for upcoming presidential elections. At least some of these characters are parodies of American political figures, like Nixon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin. Tharg’s 3rillers: “Rewind Part 1,” [W] Robert Murphy, [A] Jesus Redondo. Some detectives go back in time to solve a centuries-old murder. Damnation Station: “The Tail of the Dragon Part 4,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Mark Harrison. This story hasn’t gotten any better since prog 1855. I like these creators, but I don’t get what Damnation Station is about.
JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE #35 (DC, 1996) – “The Sword of Usaf,” [W] Christopher Priest, [A] Ramon Bernado. Several Justice Leaguers are trapped in the Warlord’s world of Skartaris. One of them – the Ray, Priest’s own creation – is separated from the rest, and he gets deceived by a villain who pretends to be a hero. This is a pretty funny issue, and it has a much clearer narrative structure than much of Priest’s work. I think I got this comic for free at an NYCC panel where Priest appeared.
JEFF STEINBERG, CHAMPION OF EARTH #1 (Oni, 2016) – “Battlefield Earth”, [W/A] Tony Fleecs, [A] Joshua Hale Fialkov. I also got this comic for free at a convention, and I’m glad I didn’t pay for it. We are introduced to Jeff Steinberg, a video store employee, and we learn that he does some unspecified task every morning around 10 am, so regularly that his friends bet on when he’ll do it. Around the halfway mark of the comic, we finally learn what Jeff is trying to do: 18 days ago, he chugged a bottle of glue on a dare, and since then he’s been trying unsuccessfully to poop. While he’s on the toilet, Jeff is abducted by aliens and forced to serve as the champion of Earth. Incidentally he’s shown naked on worldwide TV, and there’s also a brief appearance by a mean-spirited caricature of President Obama. This comic is an offensive piece of literal toilet humor, and unlike I Hate Fairyland (which also fits that description), it’s not even funny. Tony Fleecs has written some excellent comics, but this was not one of them. Also, it’s weird how Jeff’s friends think it’s funny that Jeff hasn’t pooped in 18 days. That’s a life-threatening condition, and his friends ought to be urging him to go to the emergency room.
DETECTIVE COMICS #762 (DC, 2001) – “Passings,” [W] Greg Rucka, [A] Rick Burchett. Batman grooms Sasha Bordeaux as his new sidekick, and Harvey Bullock quits the police department. For some reason this story is almost in black and white, with yellow as the only color. It also feels a bit overlong. The backup story is the conclusion of “Trail of the Catwoman” by Darwyn Cooke. Like everything else Darwyn did, it’s a masterpiece of visual storytelling.
IRON MAN/CAPTAIN AMERICA [ANNUAL] ’98 (Marvel, 1998) – “Life & Liberty,” [W] Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid & Roger Stern, [A] Patrick Zircher. In a recent storyline in his own title, Iron Man has caused the entire world, including Captain America, to forget his secret identity. Tony later reveals his secret identity to some of the Avengers, but Cap is resentful of Tony for interfering with his mind. Despite his mistrust of Tony, Cap has to team up with him against Modok, and in the course of their adventure, Cap is forced to deny some people the right to make their own choices, just as Tony did to Cap. This is a surprisingly dark story, whose moral is “Sometimes we do have to make complicated choices… but we don’t have to like them.” This annual includes a brief cameo appearance by a female SHIELD agent named O’Grady, but she seems to be no relation to Eric O’Grady.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24 (DC, 1963) – “Decoy Missions of the Justice League!”, [W] Gardner Fox, [A] Mike Sekowsky. While in prison on Rann, Kanjar Ro finds a way to separate his “aura” from his body, allowing him to escape while leaving his aura behind. Then Kanjar Ro separates the Justice Leaguers from their auras, and sends each Justice Leaguer’s aura to capture the real Justice Leaguers. Fox doesn’t explain what an aura even is, but he frequently left such things unexplained. At the end, after the JLA capture Kanjar Ro, they have to put their auras back in their own bodies, turn Kanjar Ro back to normal, and move the Earth back to its normal position – and they do all that before the next panel! This sort of ridiculously fast pacing was another typical feature of Fox’s plots.
DARK HORSE PRESENTS ANNUAL 1998 (Dark Horse, 1998) – “The Right Hand of Doom,” [W/A] Mike Mignola, etc. In a conversation with a former enemy of his, Hellboy learns about the mysterious nature of his right hand. I think Mignola later regretted introducing the idea that Hellboy’s hand could destroy the world. The second best story in this issue is an autobiographical story by Steven T. Seagle, with art by Stefano Gaudiano, about a time when he got caught stealing as a child. Other artists featured in this issue include Andi Watson and John Bolton.
LITTLE LULU #43 (Dell, 1952) – “The Night Before Christmas” etc., [W] John Stanley, [A] Irving Tripp. Tubby decides to kidnap Santa Claus so that Lulu won’t get any Christmas presents. Tubby succeeds in kidnapping Santa, but “Santa” is his own dad. This was not obivous to me at first; I thought Santa was a burglar. In “The Bear Hunt,” Lulu is followed out of the woods by a bear, but she never bothers to turn around and notice it. Both of these stories were familiar to me because they’re included in a Dark Horse reprint volume that I’ve already read. There’s also a story about sledding, and another story about a “duel” between Tubby and Wilbur.
THE OMEGA MEN #12 (DC, 2016) – untitled, [W] Tom King, [A] Barnaby Bagenda. The Omega Men finally win the war. Kallista kills the leader of the Citadel, and goes on to become an even worse tyrant than he was. This issue is a grim conclusion to a depressing series. I’m still missing a few issues of this series, but I don’t really want to collect them.
MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1993 (Marvel, 1993) – [E] Renee Witterstaetter. This begins with a silent Wolverine story, written by Larry Hama with beautiful art by Michael Golden. Then there’s a cute New Warriors story, which I wish I’d read when I was collecting New Warriors more actively. There’s also a very funny story by Peter David, in which Doc Samson tells some yeshiva children the story of Hanukkah. Unfortunately, the artist, John Hebert, makes the children look too much like adults. The other notable story is “Yule Memory” by Jim Starlin and Ron Lim, in which Thanos recalls a touching incident from Gamora’s childhood. Well, it’s sort of touching, but there’s also some murder involved. I read this story a very long time ago, in the Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos trade paperback, and I remember it well.
GRASS KINGS #14 (Boom!, 2018) – untitled, [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Tyler Jenkins. The standoff between the feds and the Grass Kingdom continues. This is another tedious issue whose plot doesn’t make much sense.
BATGIRL #28 (DC, 2014) – “Silver,” [W Gail Simone, [A] Fernando Pasarin. This issue introduces Silver, an insane vampire hunter who thinks that the Batman family are vampires. Batgirl teams up with Strix, from the Court of Owls, to rescue a kidnapped little girl, but Silver has decided the girl is a vampire too, and he’s intent on killing her. This issue is funny and terrifying at once, in a way that’s very typical of Gail’s work. It makes me want to read more of this Batgirl run. In the following issue, we discover that the girl really is a vampire.
ALL-STAR WESTERN #8 (DC, 1971) – Billy the Kid: “The Scavenger!”, [W] John Albano, [A] Tony DeZuñiga. The Billy the Kid in this story is not the historical William Bonney, but a girl outlaw disguised as a man. This story is not really about her, but about an old outlaw who’s obsessed with boots. The story ends with this character facing certain death, and the punchline is that “his next stop’ll be Boot Hill.” The only other new story in the issue is a three-pager drawn by Gil Kane, in which a cat saves a man from a wolf. The rest of the issue consists of reprints. In one of them, Buffalo Bill and his stereotypical English friend deliver new weaponry to the U.S. Army, so the army can use it against the Cheyennes. This is one of those racist old Western comics where the “good guys” are actually on the wrong side. The other two reprinted stories, starring Pow-Wow Smith and Davy Crockett, are a bit more respectful to Indians.
ROBIN RISES ALPHA #1 (DC, 2015) – untitled, [W] Peter Tomasi, [A] Andy Kubert. Kalibak invades the Batcave, and Damian has to use his new powers to defeat him. This is either the start or the end of a crossover, so I don’t quite understand it, but it does have some cute moments. At one point, Kalibak slips on the Bat-Cow’s feces. In Batman and Robin #40, we see how Damian loses the powers he had in this issue.
THOR #231 (Marvel, 1974) – “A Spectre from the Past!”, [W] Gerry Conway, [A] John Buscema. Thor discovers that Jane is comatose after a suicide attempt. He becomes overwrought, and can’t tear himself away from her hospital bed. Meanwhile Hercules fights a caveman named Armak who was accidentally summoned by a fraudulent medium. Jane Foster became a major character again thanks to Jason Aaron, but there were years at a time when she barely appeared at all.
FIRE POWER #6 (Image, 2020) – untitled, [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Chris Samnee. Owen’s home is invaded by his old mentor, who tells Owen “The dragon is real.” I’ve run out of things to say about this series. See my previous reviews where I’ve praised the art but complained about the cultural appropriation.
GRASS KINGS #15 (Boom!, 2018) – “You Are Now Leaving the Grass Kingdom,” [W] Matt Kindt, [A] Tyler Jenkins. We finally learn that the real Thin Air Killer is the author who claimed to be writing a book about the Grass Kingdom. He dies from having his innards eaten by birds, like Prometheus without the immortality, and the series ends. With this ending the rest of the series finally makes sense, but I don’t understand why it took 15 issues to get to this point. This was my least favorite of Matt Kindt’s comic book series.
ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST #8 (Boom!, 2012) – untitled, [W] Chris Roberson, [A] Francesco Biagini. Four Eternal Champions – Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum and Eric Beck – are defending Tanelorn against the combined forces of Order and Chaos. But they have to leave the battle to undertake another mission aboard the Spammer Gann, captained by Billy Bob Begg. This comic feels faithful to the source material, and it includes some clever page layouts. Biagini’s art reminds me of Walt Simonson’s. This comic, like Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse, makes more sense to me now that I’ve read Moorcock’s novel Blood: A Southern Fantasy.
HATE #30 (Fantagraphics, 1998) – “Let’s Get It On,” [W/A] Peter Bagge. Buddy rekindles his romance with Lisa, and gets her pregnant by accident. Also, Buddy tries to avoid revealing how Stinky died, although I’m not sure why he’s worried about that, since Stinky’s death was his own fault. The story includes a reference to Kaz’s Underworld, and it ends with a reference to another indie comic, Sam Henderson’s Magic Whistle. This was the last issue of Hate, but Bagge has never stopped telling Buddy’s story, and a new Hate series is starting later this year. About half this issue consists of backup stories. One of them, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Bagge, is a fake autobiography of Kool-Aid Man. Another one, written by Bagge and drawn by Danny Hellman, is about Bagge’s disappointing encounter with an old and sick Harvey Kurtzman. I actually don’t know much about what Kurtzman was like as a person.
JLA #26 (DC, 1999) – “Our Army at War,” [W] Grant Morrison, [A] Mark Pajarillo. The conclusion of the JLA’s battle against General Wade Eiling and his Ultramarines. The JLA get rid of Eiling by teleporting him into space, but he comes back a few months later. There are some clever ideas in this issue, but it’s mostly a long fight scene.
KAIJUMAX SEASON FOUR #1 (Oni, 2018) – “Murder One,” [W/A] Zander Cannon. This issue is set in the women’s prison for monsters, so it introduces a lot of new female monster characters. Cannon’s art and coloring in this issue are appealing, but I feel like this series’s premise (a prison story about monsters) is only funny the first time.
NIGHT’S DOMINION #2 (Oni, 2016) – untitled, [W/A] Ted Naifeh. The main characters infiltrate a cult’s temple, looking for a treasure. But their heist turns into a disaster, partly due to their internal squabbling, and the “treasure” turns out to be an imprisoned demigod. This was the last issue of Night’s Dominion that I hadn’t read already.
PROPHET #25 (Image, 2012) – untitled, [W] Brandon Graham & Simon Roy, [W/A] Giannis Milonogiannis. Several Prophet clones travel to a strange planet where they rescue the original John Prophet. This is one of the few American comics that feels comparable to French SF comics, specifically the works of Moebius and Jodorowsky.
FOUR COLOR #773 (Dell, 1957) – “The Brave One,” [W/A] unknown. A young Mexican tenant farmer raises a beloved bull calf from birth, and his landlord allows him to keep the bull, but then the landlord’s unscrupulous assistant appropriates the bull and sells it to a bullring. The boy goes to Mexico City and personally appeals to the President of Mexico, who tries to intervene to stop the bull from being used in a bullfight, but he arrives after the bullfight has already begun. However, the bull performs so brilliantly in the fight that the matador lets it live. The main problem with this comic is its uncritical acceptance of Mexico’s status quo. The boy and his father are basically dependent on their landlord, and it’s just their good luck that the landlord is a good man. The comic also depicts the president of Mexico (at the time, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines) as a benevolent friend to the poor, which seems kind of dubious. The comic makes no attempt to question Mexico’s class system. It also doesn’t pose the question of whether bullfighting is ethical.
NEW LOVE #3 (Fantagraphics, 1997) – “Driven by Beauty” etc., [W/A] Gilbert Hernandez. Venus narrates the first story, in which Sergio takes her on a trip, then abruptly abandons her with some creepy women, and then comes back later to rescue her. In a later story, told from Sergio’s perspective, we see that Sergio abandoned Venus because he was trying to buy drugs for his football team. It’s strange that this issue is 27 years old, because I still think of Beto’s Fritz-Petra-Venus stories as his more recent work, in comparison to his Palomar stories.
Y: THE LAST MAN #3 (Vertigo, 2005) – “Unmanned Chapter 3,” [W] Brian K. Vaughan, [A] Pia Guerra. I previously read this issue in trade paperback form, shortly after it came out. This issue is the one where the Republican Congressmen’s wives attack the White House, demanding to be appointed to their dead husbands’ seats. This comic was groundbreaking when it came out, but in hindsight, I think BKV focused too much on Yorick and not enough on the female characters.
BARCELONIGHT (Humanoïdes Associés, 1990) – [W/A] Annie Goetzinger. This album’s protagonist, Catherine, is a Frenchwoman who lives in Barcelona and works cleaning houses. She also seems to be some kind of sex worker. This album is a realistic acocunt of her job and relationships. It’s unusual for the time in that one of the major characters is transgender, and is not presented as a freak or a pervert. Goetzinger’s photorealistic artwork is amazing, and her story is kind of poignant, but it’s also rather dry and plotless. I would be interested in reading more of Goetzinger’s works, particularly her collaborations with Pierre Christin. J.M. Lofficer included this album on a list (which I’ve long since lost) of his top 100 European comics, but I’m not sure why he put it on that list.
PLANETARY #23 (Wildstorm, 2005) – “Percussion,” [W] Warren Ellis, [A] John Cassaday. A flashback story explaining the Drummer’s origin. While invading a base run by Randall Dowling (Reed Richards), Elijah and Jakita discover some children chained to computer terminals, wearing explosive collars. Dowling’s guards activate the collars, and all the children are killed except one who Jakita manages to save. The one survivor is the Little Drummer Boy, who grows up to be the Drummer. Because the flashback was not clearly demarcated from the present-day sequence, I didn’t realize it was a flashback until I was writing this review. This issue’s cover looks like an homage or swipe of a movie poster, but I’m not sure what movie.
NANCY #163 (Dell, 1959) – “Costume Brawl” etc., [W] John Stanley, [A] Dan Gormley. In Three Rocks, Bill Griffith says that John Stanley’s Nancy was just Little Lulu with different hair. That’s true, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The pre-Stanley Nancy stories in issue 158 were just sequences of gags loosely strung together, but Stanley’s Nancy stories are genuine stories, where the humor depends on the gradual buildup of tension and the progressive development of absurd situations. One of the stories in this issue guest-stars Stanley’s original character, Oona Goosepimple, who is sort of like Wednesday Addams.
THE WALKING DEAD #134 (Image, 2014) – “From Whispers to Screams,” [W] Robert Kirkman, [A] Charlie Adlard. As you can see, I couldn’t be bothered to read these issues in order. This issue, Jesus (aka Paul) fights the Whisperers and loses. Then while Carl is hanging out with Lydia, two other boys hit Carl with a brick and then start beating Lydia up. Carl recovers and beats both of the other boys with a shovel. In the next issue we learn that both the boys survived, which is too bad, because if Carl had killed them, it would absolutely have been justifiable homicide.
WARHAMMER MONTHLY #16 (Black Library, 1999) – “Inquisitor,” [W] Dan Abnett, [A] Simon Coleby, etc. I bought this comic because it had stories from various 2000 AD creators. However, these stories are of no interest to me since I’m not familiar with the Warhammer franchise. I didn’t even realize that Warhammer and Warhammer 40K are not the same thing. So to me, all these stories just seemed like pointless exercises in violence. Dan Abnett has written a large number of Warhammer novels, and is perhaps better known for those novels than for his comics.
POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #87 (Marvel, 1982) – “Heatwave,” [W] Denny O’Neil, [A] Denys Cowan. This is almost more of a Moon Knight comic than a Power Man and Iron Fist comic. Luke and Danny are hired to look for Moon Knight, who’s gotten trapped in a dry water tower while chasing a criminal. It seems that the criminal hid his loot in the water tower, but neglected to provide himself with a way out. I guess he must have planned to take a rope or a ladder with him when he retrieved the loot. Anyway, this comic is pretty silly. It seems kind of ridiculous that Moon Knight should have been unable to find a way out of the water tower. A normal person wouldn’t have been able to either, but superheroes are not normal people.
REDNECK #8 (Image, 2017) – untitled, [W] Donny Cates, [A] Lisandro Estherren. I don’t understand this issue’s plot, except that this comic is about feuding clans of redneck vampires. Due to injuries suffred in a car accident, Donny Cates has been unable to write comics since at least last year. He did an AMA on Twitter last month, so hopefully that means he’s recovering.
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #49 (DC, 2008) – “K Chapter 6: Cache,” [W] Michael Green & Mike Johnson, [A] Shane Davis. When Superman tries to destroy Lexcorp’s Kryptonite reserves, Lana Lang (the head of Lexcorp at the time) instead detonates them, causing the entire world to become contaminated with Kryptonite. Just as it seems that all the Kryptonians are going to have to leave Earth, Hiro Okamura, the new Toyman, announces that he’s deployed nanobots to destroy the kryptonite. This seems like a solution that’s worse than the problem; it’s a good way to get grey goo. But in the end only one piece of kryptonite remains, and Superman gives it to Batman. Michael Green and Mike Johnson wrote some good stories for Superman/Batman, but I don’t know anything about them.
THOR #198 (Marvel, 1972) – “—And Odin Dies!”, [W] Gerry Conway, [A] John Buscema. Thor and the Warriors Three defeat the Mangog, but Odin is apparently killed. In order to save him, Thor has to freeze time around him. The problem with this whole story, as with so many other Thor comics, is that it’s just a retread of Jack Kirby’s Thor. This issue is the last appearance of the four elderly gods from issue 195.
SAVAGE SHE-HULK #12 (Marvel, 1981) – “Reason and Rage!”, [W] David A. Kraft, [A] Mike Vosburg & Frank Springer. Jen defends Morbius the Living Vampire from murder charges, to the immense disappointment of Jen’s father. Then Morbius’s victims parents hire Gemini, from Zodiac, to kill Morbius, and Jen has to fight Gemini. This Gemini is not the original one, but a Life Model Decoy. DAK is not my favorite writer, but this comic was surprisingly fun, probably because I just like Jen as a character. Jen’s father, Morris Walters, was a recurring character in the first two She-Hulk series, but he’s barely been seen at all since Sensational She-Hulk vol. 1, except for a couple cameo appearances in Dan Slott’s run.
I AM LEGION #2 (Devil’s Due, 2009) – “The Dancing Faun,” [W] Fabien Nury, [A] John Cassaday. An espionage story set in occupied Bucharest in 1942. The plot revolves around a British-backed assassination attempt on a Nazi named Rudolf Heyzig. This seems to be a fictionalized version of the actual assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. There’s also a plot about a young girl who seems to be a vampire, a demon, and/or the sister of Dracula. I don’t entirely understand I Am Legion’s plot, but it seems like an exciting and historically accurate comic which combines espionage, historical fiction and horror. John Cassaday uses a similar style of draftsmanship in this comic as in his American work, but his pages have far more panels.
THE WOODS #12 (Boom!, 2015) – untitled, [W] James Tynion IV, [A] Michael Dialynas. The main event in this issue is that Adrian goes mad with power, and one of the other kids has to stab him from behind. There’s also lots of other plot developments that I can’t remember. I wish I’d read this series when it was coming out.
FOUR COLOR #717 (Dell, 1956) – “Moby Dick,” [W] Paul S. Newman, [A] Frank Thorne. An adaptation of the 1956 film by John Huston, which was itself based on Melville’s novel. Some of the epic power of Moby Dick is preserved in this comic, but the comic also leaves out a ton of stuff, and it simplifies the characters’ personalities and motivations. It also gives Ahab an altruistic motivation for pursuing Moby Dick: Ahab claims that he wants to destroy the whale because it’s a danger to the whale oil industry. I don’t remember him saying any such thing in the book. As a Moby Dick adaptation, this comic is vastly inferior to the 1990 version by Bill Sienkiewicz. I suspect that this comic is also much worse than the European Moby Dick comics by Dino Battaglia or Christophe Chabouté, though I haven’t read either of those.
FATALE #2 (Image, 2012) – untitled, [W] Ed Brubaker, [A] Sean Phillips. In a flashback story set in the ‘50s, a journalist, Hank Raines, tries to unravel the mystery of Josephine and the cult that’s pursuing her. I already read the Image Firsts edition of the previous issue, but I don’t remember anything about it.
DETECTIVE COMICS #1001 (DC, 2019) – “Medieval,” [W] Peter Tomasi, [A] Brad Walker. A mysterious plague causes all the bat colonies in Gotham to die off. When Batman asks Francine Langstrom if she knows what’s going on, she turns into She-Bat. Then Batman is attacked by some cultists, and at the end of the issue the Arkham Knight appears. This issue doesn’t have the most coherent story, but the art is nice.
GHOST/HELLBOY #2 (Image, 1996) – untitled, [W] Mike Mignola, [A] Scott Benefiel. I don’t know anything about Ghost, but this comic is basically a Hellboy comic with Ghost as a guest-star. It has the same style of art and writing as any of Mignola’s other comics.
S.W.O.R.D. #1 (Marvel, 2021) – “Mysterium,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Valerio Schiti. This issue introduces Abigail Brand’s new satellite and its crew, such as Wiz-Kid. The best moment in this issue is when Magneto encounters his former minion, Fabian Cortez, and acts annoyed and impolite. But then Magneto sees another old ally, Peeper from Captain America Annual #4, and he’s overjoyed to see him, saying “Of course, old friend, anytime. I’ve always valued you input.” And Cortez is shocked at this differential treatment. This scene illustrates an interesting side of Magneto’s personality, and I’m sorry that Resurrection of Magneto didn’t include any scenes like this.
I went back to Heroes again on May 4, Free Comic Book Day. There seemed to be quite a nice crowd in the store.
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #36 (Boom!, 2024) – “Road Stories Part One,” [W] James Tynion IV, [A] Werther Dell’Edera. In a flashback story, Erica discovers an Oscuratype that only seems to kill puppies and not children. She figures out that the Oscuratype was generated by a puppy rather than a human child, and she destroys it and saves the puppy’s mother. I’m not a dog person, but the dogs in this comic are adorable. This is called “part one” but it seems to be a self-contained story. I assume this story arc will be a series of one-shots.
FERAL #2 (Image, 2024) – “At First We Thought We Were Safe from It,” [W] Tony Fleecs, [A] Trish Forstner. While fleeing for their lives, the three former indoor cats encounter some feral cats. One of them is nice, but quickly gets eaten. The other one is a prickly jerk. The cats figure out where their home is, but now they face additional danger from human CDC agents, who have orders to kill anything four-legged. A poignant scene in this issue is when Lord reveals that he can’t climb down from a tree because he’s been declawed. When I got my cat, I was instructed not to declaw him, not only because it’s the same as cutting off a person’s fingertips, but also for the reason depicted in this comic. If an indoor cat gets outside somehow, it’s going to need its claws to survive. And that’s actually the central conflict of this comic – it’s about indoor cats who have been thrust from a safe, sheltered environment, into a terrifying world where everything wants to kill them.
ENERGON UNIVERSE FCBD 2024 SPECIAL (Image, 2024) – “Transformers,” [W] Daniel Warren Johnson, [A] Ryan Ottley. This issue’s most interesting story is the first, where we see the Energon Universe version of Megatron for the first time. This Megatron seems to have some actual principles and integrity, and his conflict with Optimus Prime seems like more of a political disagreement, rather than a simple question of good versus evil. But thanks to Starscream’s predictable betrayal, Megatron is now a captive of Cobra. Next there’s a Void Rivals story that I don’t care about, and then a G.I. Joe story where the government starts setting up the G.I. Joe team – or possibly teams plural.
DUKE #5 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Joshua Williamson, [A] Tom Reilly. Duke finally meets Destro, then he defeats the B.A.T. but is apparently killed himself. Then Duke turns up alive, and the government enlists his help against the Transformers. This miniseries was a great start to Image’s G.I. Joe franchise. This issue also includes a preview of the upcoming Destro series, in which Destro wins a battle against Darklon. I don’t remember Larry Hama using Darklon very often.
ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD #14 (Boom!, 2024) – “The Question of Why,” [W] Jason Aaron, [A] Nick Dragotta et al. As Maceo and Mezzy fight the raiders, they have a series of flashbacks to their past life. These flashback sequences are illustrated by the two previous artists, Alexandre Tefenkgi and Leila del Duca. The overall effect is that Maceo and Mezzy are reliving their past lives and realizing that they still love each other despite everything. Then they both fall into the chasm, and they realize that the generator is still operating, but the surviving raiders are trying to destroy it. This series is Jason Aaron’s best work since Southern Bastards ended prematurely, and I’m excited for the final issue.
POWER PACK: INTO THE STORM #5 (Marvel, 2024) – “Storm’s End,” [W] Louise Simonson, [A] June Brigman. Mayhem unleashes Franklin’s full godly powers, but Power Pack are able to defeat her and then restore Franklin’s power blockers. The kids get back home safely, but the Power children are conflicted about whether to tell their parents about their powers. It’s now been 40 years since Weezie and June created Power Pack, but this miniseries felt exactly like a storyline from their original run.
MAN’S BEST #2 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Pornsak Pichetshote, [A] Jesse Lonergan. The three pets escape a series of dangers, while constantly squabbling among themselves. At the end, one of the dogs is apparently killed by an alien. I liked this issue better than the previous issue. The action sequences are beautiful, and they enable Jesse Lonergan to show off his unique style of visual storytelling. On a public Facebook post of his, I commented “I love your use of motion lines or trajectories that merge with the panel borders,” and he replied “yeah, I like getting to the point where I’m not sure what’s a panel border and what’s a movement line.” This issue also includes an interview between the two creators, in which it’s confirmed that Hedra was Lonergan’s first work in his current style, while his earlier works, like All Star, were much more conventional. Hedra is still my favorite of his comics.
KAYA #18 (Image, 2024) – “Kaya and the Temple of Shazir,” [W/A] Wes Craig. The princess betrays Kaya and Jin, and in a beautiful action sequence, Jin has to turn into a dragon to protect Kaya. Then Kaya betrays the princess right back, by allowing the enemy robots into the temple. The rebellion temporarily succeeds, but having been let into the tower, the robots take over the city, and the monks have to destroy the sacred spring so that the robots can’t get it. Kaya and Jin are unable to get the princess to come with them, though they do come away with enough gold to pay for a trip to their next destination. But when Kaya and Jin get to the place where they’re supposed to meet the ship, they find that the ship has already sailed. So by taking a detour to Shazir, Kaya and Jin caused an awful disaster and betrayed their own morals, in exchange for no benefit, and now they have to travel the Dragon Road anyway. This is perhaps the lowest point in their journey.
IMMORTAL THOR #10 (Marvel, 2024) – “Getting the Ax,” [W] Al Ewing, [A] Carlos Magno. Thor fights the Roxxon Thor and wins, despite being unable to think except in clichés. An epic moment is when Thor destroys the other Thor’s hammer while thinking “That’s not a hammer. This is a hammer.” While this is going on, the Executioner murders Dario Agger with Thor’s ax. Yay! Good riddance to bad rubbish! Except that then Thor summons the bloody ax into his hand, thus implicating himself in the murder. This series was below average at first, but over the past three issues, it’s become at least Marvel’s third best current title.
PINE & MERRIMAC #4 (Boom!, 2024) – untitled, [W] Kyle Starks, [A] Fran Galan. Linnea and Parker escape from the cult meeting, but their cover is blown. They sneak back into another cult meeting, bringing two policemen with them. But the policemen are part of the cult, and one of them shoots Parker point-blank in the head. Remember that this series is not named after the main characters, so it’s entirely plausible that one of them might die before the series is over.
THE WHISPER QUEEN #1 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Chip Zdarsky, [A] Kris Anka. This is the second “Blacksand Tale,” following White Trees, which I enjoyed but had mostly forgotten about. Like Whisper Queen, White Trees is about two aging adventurers who are trying to track down their missing grown children. Whisper Queen is entertaining so far, but also confusing. It took me a while to realize that both protagonists were female. Also, Kris Anka’s art is a little awkward at times.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #4 (Marvel, 2024) – untitled, [W] Jonathan Hickman, [A] David Messina. Peter and MJ have a rather uncomfortable dinner with Harry Osborn and his wife, Gwen Stacy. David Messina renders the characters’ facial expressions beautifully, though he makes it look suggestive when the women are eating. There are also some cute scenes where Ben and JJJ babysit Peter and MJ’s kids. Ben and JJJ’s friendship, as two grumpy old men, is perhaps the best thing about this series. There are no action scenes in this issue, and Peter spends the entire issue out of costume, and yet this issue feels like a classic Spider-Man story.
W0RLDTR33 #9 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] James Tynion IV, [A] Fernando Blanco. This issue is mostly a flashback sequence where the future tech billionaire, Gregory, sees the Undernet for the first time. There’s also a present-day scene involving Gabriel’s sister who’s turned into an agent of the Undernet. This series has gotten easier to understand, but I still have trouble remembering all the characters.
RARE FLAVOURS #5 (Boom!, 2024) – “Triple Schezwan Rice,” [W] Ram V, [A] Filipe Andrade. This issue’s featured dish is an example of Indian Chinese cuisine, which is usually associated with Kolkata, though the comic points out that this cuisine also has other origins. The misspelling “Schezwan” for Szechwan is standard in India. I actually can get Schezwan rice in Charlotte, though I haven’t had it. As for the plot, in this issue Rubin/Bakasura goes back to his previous village and decides to stop eating people, but Dilkush and Dilshan are still on his trail. There’s one issue left.
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #6 (Marvel, 2024) – “The Greater Good,” [W] Dan Slott & Christos Gage, [A] Mark Bagley. Doc Ock escapes from the Hudson Valley with Supernova, and Peter and Anna Maria have to prevent the town from being destroyed. Afterward, Peter and Anna Maria hitchhike back to town, and there’s a footnote telling the reader that hitchhiking is dangerous (see the above review of Young Romance #206). Back in town, the Superior Spider-Boy has turned all of New York into a single spider hive-mind. This issue suggests that “Dolt!” is Doc Ock’s catch phrase.
SEPT ‘N’ EMBER (Floating World, 2024) – [W/A] Farel Dalrymple. This minicomic is a preview of Dalrymple’s forthcoming series Robot Tod, which is the name of the kid-sized robot that’s appeared in several of his recent works. Sept ‘n’ Ember is less a comic than a series of illustrations with captions. The artwork is beautiful, but there’s no clear narrative. However, this is also true of most of Dalrymple’s solo work.
BARDA 2024 FCBD SPECIAL EDITION #1 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Ngozi Ukazu. On Apokolips, Barda returns from a successful mission with the Female Furies, and Granny Goodness gives her the Mega-Rod. Then Granny shows Barda a captive from New Genesis, Scott Free, and orders Barda to “break him.” This is an exciting comic that shows a genuine understanding of Kirby’s original stories. I especially love Granny’s line “To wriggle past the lock of one’s cell, to outwit Darkseid’s forces – to wind one’s way through the ever-changing maze that is the X-Pit? To actually escape? Why, it would take a miracle!” After reading this, I want to read the graphic novel that it’s based on. The backup story, a preview of an upcoming novel about Dreamer, is much less appealing because it lacks a clear plot. I kind of resent how DC is promoting Dreamer, who is based on a Legion of Super-Heroes character, while they’ve given up on the actual Legion.
TOXIC SUMMER #1 (Oni, 2024) – “Unsupervised Perverted Beach Maniacs Chapter 1,” [W/A] Derek Charm. Two gay teenage boys get a summer job as lifeguards in a beach resort, hoping to meet hot guys. But they discover that the beach is closed due to a toxic spill. They meet some friends anyway, but it soon becomes clear that there’s some kind of cosmic horror plot going on. I only know Derek Charm as an artist, and I’m pleased to discover that his writing is also very witty. I especially like the running joke about the boys’ toxic stench.
POISON IVY #21 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W] G. Willow Wilson, [A] Márcio Takara. Ivy gains her powers, and Woodrue flees from town like the coward he is. Then Ivy travels to Gotham, but her efforts to save the environment are frustrated like Batman and Robin. This three-parter was the definitive Poison Ivy origin story, and the highlight of Wilson’s run on this series. The issue ends by bringing us back to the present, when Ivy is confronting Woodrue again.
THE SIX FINGERS #3 (Image, 2024) – untitled, [W] Dan Watters, [A] Sumit Kumar. Johannes discovers that he can slip between the walls of the city, and he also learns to read the mysterious square writing. Galina becomes his new sidekick. So far this is probably the creepiest and most fascinating issue of either series. Now that I have the key, I could go back and read all the text in all the previous issues, but right now I can’t be bothered.
THE FLASH #8 (DC, 2024) – “Pioneers,” [W] Simon Spurrier, [A] Ramon Perez & Vasco Georgiev. The speedsters try to manage an increasing series of crises, while also looking for Wally. Meanwhile, Amanda Waller persecutes the speedsters and finally orders them to stop using their powers, on the grounds that their powers are destroying the fabric of reality. There’s also some more incomprehensible nonsense about the Stillness and the Linear Men and the Arc Angles. After this issue, I decided I was done with this series. On one hand I feel obligated to read everything by Simon Spurrier, but on the other hand, his style of characterization is completely unsuited for this series, and in addition, his Flash’s plot has never made any sense. I won’t be getting issue 9.
THE FLASH 2024 ANNUAL (DC, 2024) – “The Cosmological Quest of the Hero Wally West,” [W] Simon Spurrier, [A] Scott Koblish et al. After reading issue 8, I was determined to drop this series, but if I had had any lingering doubts about whether to keep reading it, this annual would have removed those doubts. This annual includes some interesting visual techniques, but its plot is still completely incomprehensible. And it’s in this comic that Spurrier’s style of characterization reaches its nadir. When Waller asks Linda where Wally is, she says, “I love my husband. In the clear parts of my mind I know that. But I have no idea where he is. Or if he’s coming back. And that’s normal. That’s normal for me. And right now – try though I might – I can’t bring myself to care.” To me this is just character assassination. Mark Waid or Jeremy Adams’s Linda could never say such a thing. She might have said that she was confident Wally would return, and that she was willing to wait for him – but not that she didn’t care. Maybe Spurrier’s characterization is more realistic, but the Flash is not supposed to be realistic in that way. This series is a failure, and I’m done with it.
BARKHAM ASYLUM 2024 FCBD SPECIAL EDITION #1 (DC, 2024) – untitled, [W/A] Yehudi Mercado. One of the Joker’s dogs forms a friendship with a cat of unknown origin. Then the dog gets hauled off to “Barkham Asylum,” since the city pound has stopped taking supervillain pets. Except for that last bit, I didn’t much like this comic, but I’m not its target audience. After I went to Heroes on Saturday, I went next door to Menya Daruma, and while I was there I saw a mother with two very young children, each with copies of this comic. That seems like a good thing. The backup story in this issue is much more interesting to me; it’s a preview of Grace Ellis and Penelope Rivera Gaylord’s graphic novel about a young Wonder Woman.
PRIMER #2 (DC, 2024) – “No Paint, No Gain,” [W] Jennifer Muro & Thomas Krajewski, [A] Gretel Lusky. Ashley befriends a boy named Luke. Ashley’s mother steals some experimental chemicals from her workplace. Ashley steals them, thinking they’re a birthday present, and uses them on herself, thus gaining superpowers. Then Ashley is told that her supervillain father wants to see her. I assume Ashley’s dad is a new character, because there’s no DC villain named Frank Rayburn, if her father has the same surname as her. This comic is very fun, with colorful and appealing art, and the way Ashley gains her powers is quite plausible.