That said, let's move on to the superlatives.
The Most Misinterpreted Art This Week:
BOBBY'S NIPPLE HAND
 |
| X-Men: Schism #1, written by Jason Aaron, art by Carlos Pacheco, inks by Cam Smith, colors by Frank D'Armata, letters by Jared K. Fletcher |
The Best Heroine Who Kept Her Pants On This Week:
GHOST RIDER
 |
| Ghost Rider #1, written by Rob Williams, art by Matthew Clark, inks by Sean Parsons, colors by Robert Schwager, letters by Clayton Cowles |
The Most Ass-Kickin' Face For Kickin' Faces In The Ass This Week:
LIZ SHERMAN
 |
| B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: Monsters #1, written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, art by Tyler Crooks, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Clem Robbins |
It's hard saying good-bye to Guy Davis on BPRD. That face, maybe more than anything else in this issue, went a long way to warming me up to Crook though. Liz is having NONE OF THAT.
And now the proper categories where I don't think I'll mention pants anymore:
Best Cover This Week:
IT'S A TIE! B.P.R.D.: HELL ON EARTH: MONSTERS AND THE RED WING
 |
| B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: Monsters #1, cover art by Ryan Sook, colors by Dave Stewart The Red Wing #1, cover art by Nick Pitarra, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg |
While not as tough as the interiors this week, cover was still a challenge to narrow down and eventually couldn't decide between these two, which are fairly different from each other but both incredibly well-done. Sook's BPRD cover seems simple at first glace, but the more you focus on it, the more details you can pick out. In a complex but streamlined image he manages to convey almost everything in the book in a single image, laid out beautifully and flowing into itself. Red Wing, on the other hand, is far simpler, but no less a wonderful design, the negative space very evocative of some elements of the book; the expansiveness of time and the idea of being lost in it. Both these books were excellent, and they were certainly given covers befitting them.
Best Art This Week:
FRANCESO FRANCAVILLA DOUBLE-SHOT! DETECTIVE COMICS AND BLACK PANTHER
 |
| Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #521, written by David Liss, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Joe Caramagna Detective Comics #879, written by Scott Snyder, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Jared K. Fletcher |
Now this category was damn hard to narrow down, and I have to give acknowledgement to almost half my pull for some of the great art this week. In the Mignola-verse, both Tyler Crook on BPRD and Duncan Fegredo on Hellboy did amazing jobs, Crook making the trailer park setting wonderfully atmospheric and creepy and Fegredo just killing it on an issue-long fight between Hellboy and the Dragon and their clashing armies, featuring some beautiful renditions of the apocalyptic Four Horsemen that I hope we haven't seen the last of. On the Marvel side of things, Ed Brubaker's new Captain America series kicked off, with some very strong Steve McNiven art throughout, and featuring one of the best renditions of the character on the last-page reveal I think I've ever seen. Additionally, even the Fear Itself tie-ins were in great form; Journey Into Mystery had some great work as ever from Doug Braithwaite, although the pencils felt a little light this week, and FI: Spider-Man had a great fight between Spider-Man and the Worthy-fied Ben Grimm. Nick Pitarra on The Red Wing almost took the top spot, but in the end I had to give it to Francavilla, because we got not one but two books from the artist, on both sides of the Big Two aisle.
From DC, Francavilla continued his excellent work on Detective Comics, carrying on from the James Jr. story he had originally started as a back-up story in the book before lines were drawn and back-ups cut out, making it the only story for a couple issues before bouncing back to the also-great Jock-drawn issues. But now we're back to Commisioner Gordon and his son, as well as a b-story with the Joker and so far no Batman in sight (that it can carry itself on story alone without the Bat I've felt was one of the strengths of Detective Comics in recent years). The story is creepy (if not a bit... super-villain-y) and that is only enhanced by the heavy blacks and reds of Francavilla's art. He does great character work, more than anything the eyes stick out to me. You can feel the worry in Gordon's face, the horror in the Joker's victims' despite their rictal smiles, and while he doesn't show up much in this issue, looking at James Jr.'s eyes is just... genuinely unsettling.
 |
| Detective Comics #879, written by Scott Snyder, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Jared K. Fletcher |
But where Detective Comics is a crime thriller teetering into the realm of superheroics, Black Panther (The Man Without Fear) dives into it headfirst, with a ghost banished to space hitching a ride back to Earth on a magic hammer and possessing a man in Hell's Kitchen to form an army of racist revolutionaries. I honestly haven't been reading this book, and I just picked it up to see what the hell was up with this whole American Panther thing, and it certainly didn't go in any direction I expected it to. And even though it's no longer giving the horror movie atmosphere, Francavilla's art is just as solid here, capably doing both the action sequences and where it's just the characters standing around talking (or yelling), and included his take on Angrir, the Worthy version of the Thing. Both books are great, and between them showcase a huge range of what Francavilla can do with his art.
 |
| Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #521, written by David Liss, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Joe Caramagna |
DAOMU
 |
| Daomu #5, written by Kennedy Xu, script by Colin Johnson, art by Ken Chou, letters by Hamilton Cline |
I know I've mentioned on here before, Daomu is a great book that I almost never hear anyone talking about. My store doesn't always get the issues in, so that forced my hand to make it one of the first digital comics I was regularly picking up. At issue five, the arc is wrapping up and hopefully it won't be long until the collection is out but as of right now all five issues are available either in shops or digitally. The story is fun and unique, fairly sure unlike much else on the market right now, and the art is beautiful, with a very kinetic style and has some of the best coloring I've seen, giving the scenes a real animated, kinetic feel. With issue five, the story arc is winding down but the team is still trapped in the tomb, facing more monsters and concerning themselves with just getting back alive instead of what they went in for in the first place. It's also getting to the point in the story where there's not much to say about a single issue but I still urge everyone to give this one a shot.
Best First Issue This Week:
THE RED WING
 |
| The Red Wing #1, written by Johnathan Hickman, art by Nick Pitarra, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg |
There were a few good first issues this week, with the new BPRD storyline and Brubaker's Captain America series kicking off, as did Jason Aaron's Schism #1 but the one that really stuck out was Jonathan Hickman's The Red Wing, first in a four-part series. The Red Wing is one of those stories that's deceptively hard to pull off these days: a time-travel story with an interesting hook. Focusing on the time-travel technology, as well as a great deal of how it can go awry, Red Wing takes a look at two generations of pilots fighting in a pan-temporal war, the son who just arrived at the academy and the father who supposedly died years ago. Several scenes show the same battle being fought across different epochs bring up some wonderfully clever ways time travel can be used tactically, all told simply and effectively through stark narration and Pitarra's wonderful art. The son's story is not quite as compelling, but instead capably introduces some of the technology behind the time travel and the militaristic state of the people utilizing it. This does exactly what a first issue should do, introduces the story and leaves me ready to grab up the rest of the series as soon as I can.
Best Last Issue This Week:
FEAR ITSELF: SPIDER-MAN
 |
| Fear Itself: Spider-Man #3, written by Chris Yost, art by Mike McKone, colors by Jeremy Cox, letters by Joe Caramagna |
I really didn't like the first two issues of this, and I almost didn't pick this last one up if in the end I wasn't so OCD about my collection and leaving mini-series unfinished. As I'm writing this now, I'm obviously glad I did. This issue could have been a one-shot and been amazing, instead of a three-issue series that was just okay. It had very little to do with the first two except tangentially, the majority of them were spent with characters we only saw a page or two of in passing in the last issue, and setting up Spider-Man's motivation, which could have easily been done without all the side stories and still gotten him to the same spot. Hell, they got almost everything you needed to know across on the first page of this one. The majority of the issue is spent in a hospital as Spider-Man tries to protect the fear-ravaged citizens, figuratively fighting his own fears while literally fighting a possessed Thing, Angrir of the Worthy who seemed to be the Hammer-Wielder of the Week this time around, showing up in several books just out of the ones I picked up. If it's not horribly obvious yet, I'm a bit biased to any book with a decent fight sequence involving Spidey. A Spider-Man action sequence can be a beautiful thing when done right, making use of the character's unique skills and acrobatic nature and Mike McKone does an excellent job with the fight (and Spidey is depicted with the blue bits of his costume being solid black, which is a design I've always been oddly partial to). If you haven't picked up the rest of the series, I'd still recommend grabbing even just this issue, it's a story with great Spider-Man moments and actions, and definitely one of the best parts of Fear Itself so far.
Best Event Tie-In This Week:
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
 |
| Journey Into Mystery #625, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Doug Braithwaite, colors by Ulises Arreola, letters by Clayton Cowles |
I didn't pick up any Flashpoint issues this week, so it's down to Marvel this week for the event books. Amazing Spider-Man left some Infested/Spider Island crumbs lying around but it was far more of a stand-alone issue than anything I could classify as a tie-in. Alternatively, over in the X-verse, Schism #1 kicked off and, although I was hesitant to pick it up, it was actually a fun issue, setting up an interesting story and full of great moments with a lot more comedy than I expected. Surprisingly though, the Fear Itself tie-ins this week were all pretty great. Ghost Rider and Black Panther were both fun, and as I just said, the Spider-Man mini ended on a very strong point, but if I had to pick anything this week as the strongest issue it'd be Journey Into Mystery. Along with Slott on Amazing Spider-Man and Parker's Thunderbolts, Kieron Gillen kicked this title in the ass once he took over and has made it one of the strongest books Marvel is currently putting out. Even though he's building himself a nice little army at this point, the book's star is its biggest stand-out. What was a few issues ago was a book named after and about Thor, is now about his brother Loki, one of the most storied characters in Marvel's fold and reincarnated as an absolutely adorable, precocious little scamp. I've said it before, but I absolutely love this iteration of Loki. Like my love for a Spider-Man action sequence does right, Gillen has found Loki's unique talents of lying and treachery, and created a character who's using these skills seemingly for good, bending lords and ladies of Hel(l) to his will and amassing an Asgardian A-Team to combat the rising threat of the Serpent. The strength of the old Loki's character came from the God of Lies and Trickery having the ability to somehow seem trustworthy again, as if maybe this time he's on the level, no matter what scheme he just pulled, and the heroes or whoever the mark was, believed him and in some way the readers do too, maybe just out of belief in redemption and the greater good. And of course he's always a lying sack of shit in the end. So that has me incredibly wary this book is suddenly going to take a hard left into that territory, and if and when it does I'm going to be heartbroken 'cause I love this little guy just as he is. Journey Into Mystery manages to be an epic and classical fantasy tale while being quite fun and funny and down-to-earth at the same time, this issue seeing the characters traverse from loathsome Hel to loathsome Newark, and is simply put incredible to look at as well, with Doug Braithwaite on art and Ulises Arreola coloring.
Best Comic This Week:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #665, written by Dan Slott, art by Ryan Stegman ("Crossroads") and Giuseppe Camuncoli ("I'll Never Let You Go"), inks by Michael Babinski ("Crossroads"), colors by John Rauch ("Crossroads") and Marte Gracia ("I'll Never Let You Go"), letters by Joe Caramagna |
I can't say I'm surprised that I loved a Spidey book Dan Slott wrote, but after being so happy with Fear Itself: Spider-Man I wasn't prepared to like another Spider-Man book this much in the same week. Instead of ramping up to Spider-Island and seeing the city fall into chaos, Slott uses this issue to take a step back and focus on the character, and takes the time here to remind us, when soon everyone is going to have the same powers as him, what makes Peter Parker unique. Ostensibly this was a Spidey story we've seen quite a few times before, with Peter losing his cool after someone close to him got hurt and going after the culprit, bringing the full rage of the Spider down upon not even a super-villain, but some lowly thug. That is, essentially, how this all began, and Slott's run has had no shortage of parallels back to the old original days. This issue runs the full emotional gamut, from lighthearted and cute to guilt and fear, tragedy and blind rage and all back again. The ending was a bit silly and saccharine, but this is still a book that perfectly understands Spider-Man as a character, as well as his relationships to the supporting cast, without getting so bogged down in the drama that it forgets that it's a superhero book, and that it can be silly and fun. If the book wasn't good enough on just the writing, Ryan Stegman delivers some amazing art as well. All his character work is excellent, even with a cast as large as this issue has, and his panels of Spider-Man webslinging around are some seriously great work. I really can't say enough nice things about this book, and I haven't even gotten to the back-up yet. Still written by Slott with Giuseppe Camuncoli on art, this again plays up the human side of Spider-Man, and his relationships with his family and friends, particularly his bond with Aunt May in this story. It's at once funny and poignant, and that last page had me going from laughing at loud to tearing up in the space of a few panels. I'm gushing at this point, but this was damn near a perfect comic for me. As a kid, Spider-Man was what got me into comics in the first place. When I read something like this I can't tap into that cynicism or snark built up over the years spent as a comic geek; I'm just that kid again, and I'm willing to end this on that sappy note.
Man-Thing Of The Week:
MAN-THING
I didn't get any books with Man-Thing in it, and I worry this may happen more often than not, but fortunately for this week I was down at ConnectiCon this past weekend, and I got this lovely sketch from Atomic Robo artist Scott Wegener.
No comments:
Post a Comment