Similarly weak this week was the digital pull, which is a damn shame because I just upgraded my reading experience. I had up 'til now been reading my digital comics either on my phone or my iPod Touch but this week I finally broke down and picked up a tablet (the Acer Iconia, if curious) and I have to say, suddenly I get it. That is to say, presented in this format, digital comics seem like at least a viable alternative, albeit not a preferable one, to print. The forced use of Guided View on ComiXology on the smaller devices was infuriating and browser viewing never felt quite natural but with a screen roughly the size of a normal comic that I can read normally, or browse and zoom when so desired in ways that feel intuitive. I still prefer my hard copy to the digital, and this doesn't eliminate issues like the licenses or price points, but I can see ways this nascent format may come into its own somewhere down the line. But this could be its own post, instead let's look at The Best Whatever I Read This Week.
The Best Product Placement Pun This Week:
JUGGERNAUT PUNCHING COLOSSUS INTO ORBIT®
Uncanny X-Men #541, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Greg Land, inked by Jay Leisten, colors by Justin Ponsor, letters by Joe Caramagna
I don't know if this was on purpose or not, and I genuinely can't decide which way I'd rather have it.
Additionally, I don't know if anyone's figured out a cipher for the Worthy-text yet, if there even is one, but Juggy says that particular five-rune phrase several times throughout the issue. If there is a direct correlation between that and English, I'd put my money on "BITCH".
Anti-Pants: The Kid's All Right
MARGOT (LI'L PEE GEE)
Power Girl #26, written by Matthew Sturges, art by Hendry Prasetya, colors by Jessica Kholinne, letters by Travis Lanham
This was a cute, fun issue that I can't really say anything bad about, but not a whole lot stood out aside Margot, the littllest Power Girl, especially in this panel. Have to assume this is somehow related to the Wonder Woman brouhaha, but not sure how long ago the joke was written.
Best Cover This Week:
DAREDEVIL
Daredevil #1, written by Mark Waid, art by Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin, inks by Joe Rivera and Marcos Martin, colors by Javier Rodriguez and Muntsa Vicente, letters by Joe Caramagna
Almost gave it to Power Girl just for the sheer amount of boob-windows, but this one won out. I'll be writing plenty about the interior of this book, but first up the outside gets a mention. As soon as I saw this cover solicited, I loved it. You have to first notice Daredevil's figure against the fairly-stark background, all muted colors but the red still standing out well against the pale, almost indistinguishable cityscape. And that's until you move in, and see everything around Daredevil is made of their omnomotopieic sound effects, a concrete poem taking the shape of New York City. The pigeons are all flaps, the water tower glugging and sloshing from the liquid inside, traffic noise bouncing upward off the buildings, smoke hissing out of vents before floating silently away, a sepia void against the rest of the noisescape. It's simple, but it's a clever way to depict DD's radar sense, and a wonderful cover that readily announces this Daredevil book isn't quite so dark and gloomy as the rest of its family.
Best Art This Week:
PAOLO RIVERA & MARCOS MARTIN, DAREDEVIL
Daredevil #1, written by Mark Waid, art by Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin, inks by Joe Rivera and Marcos Martin, colors by Javier Rodriguez and Muntsa Vicente, letters by Joe Caramagna
Okay, now for why the inside's so pretty. The book's main story is drawn by Paolo Rivera, and he does an amazing job here. Between the acrobatic fight sequences and the visualizations of Daredevil's powers, both of them through some atypical... terrain, I suppose you can call it, as Spot keeps poking holes in reality, Rivera brings an amazing kineticism to a character with a looser, more fluid style than he used on the cover. As I've said at length about Spider-Man, this is how this type of hero should be depicted in action, to feel the motion and the speed in the art rather than the impact of the punches. He's equally at home, however, in the less-frenetic scenes as Matt Murdock litigates instead of scrapping with super-villains.
Marcos Martin provides the back-up for the issue, a short story with Matt and Foggy Nelson having a conversation as they walk through New York, and as simple as that is Martin takes it and does some amazing storytelling with his art. In single panels we see the progress as the two cross the street, or go down into the subway station. The effect he creates is a subtle and gentle flow that perfectly emulates the pace of the stroll. It's all beautifully done, but the real stand-out is a two-page spread as we follow Matt and Foggy across an intersection, with a visual shorthand for Matt's powers completely different from Rivera's, but no less clever. I just scanned a section of it, but the whole thing is one of my favorite pieces of comic art in a long time.
Best Digital Comic This Week:
NOTHIN'
Nobody
I only picked up one new digital comic this week, the new digital-exclusive chapter of the Arkham City comic focusing on Bane, which was certainly better than last week's Robin chapter but not really worth mentioning. However, I didn't buy them because I already have them, but Chris Eliopoulis' Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers are up on graphic.ly, which was a great, cute series, and Simone's Secret Six is up on ComiXology up to the recent Reptile Brain arc (seems up to #29 are available digitally), so the entire run should be available not long after the series itself concludes, if for some reason you have yet to read it.
As I mentioned up top though, I did pick up an Android tablet and as such splurged a little on some older titles to try out on it. Just for some random recommendations, I picked up the first volumes of the Amazing Joy Buzzards, Finals and the Sixth Gun and Flashpoint: Grodd Of War over on ComiXology, some Incognito, Hexed, Eldritch! and Love And Capes on graphic.ly and over at mydigitalcomics.com, I grabbed Adam Hines' Duncan The Wonder Dog, which made quite a few Book Of The Year lists last year. Apparently the book itself is hard to come by at this point, which having it readily available here (and it's an actual digital copy of the book, either as PDF or CBR, not just a license on a reader) an excellent argument in favor of the digital format. I've only gotten about a fourth of the way through it so far (a hefty 397 pages (yet as light as a gigabyte)) and I hate to recommend anything before I've actually finished it, but so far it seems like a pretty great read.
Also on the current digital landscape is Greg Pak's Great Free Comics For New Readers Experiment, where he's asking new readers to check out some of the free offerings on Comixology (oddly specific with ComiXology here but I will stress to add both graphic.ly and mydigitalcomics.com have free offerings too) as a cost-free way to dive in and get a taste. So check it out and/or pass it along to any non-readers you know who may be looking to convert, and let Pak know how the experiment's going.
Best First Issue This Week:
DAREDEVIL
Daredevil #1, written by Mark Waid, art by Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin, inks by Joe Rivera and Marcos Martin, colors by Javier Rodriguez and Muntsa Vicente, letters by Joe Caramagna
If it's not obvious, I really enjoyed Waid's Daredevil. Which may be it's greatest fault, and I'll put that up front: this is a fun book. For about twenty years, keeping the book iconically grim and gritty away has been what kept Daredevil from ostensibly being New York's second Spider-Man. There are obviously differences to the character, but there certainly are some similarities there too (although unlike Spidey, Daredevil has retained his dolphin-sense). And this book is great but it does feel a bit like a Spider-Man book; Daredevil dealing with problems in his civilian identity by going out and having a good time being a super-hero, in the daytime, in bright colors and negative space. Now all this isn't a complaint, really, just an observation on the tone of the book. Realistically, though, I see this as more the anomaly than the new status quo, embroiled as he is in the world of organized crime (and ninjas), some day he's going to go dark again. In the meantime this is the breath of life the character absolutely needed, post-Shadowland. All the shadows and drama (and so far continuity) have been shrugged off and it's back to just solid (again, fun) super-heroics; fighting mobsters, super-villains and prosecutors. And that last page is a hell of a way to end an issue.
Plus, this issue managed to make the Spot a genuinely menacing villain, which is no small feat.
Best Event Tie-In This Week:
JK LOL, IT'S DEADPOOL
Fear Itself: Deadpool #2 (of 3), written by Chris Hastings, art by Bong Dazo, inks by Joe Pimental, colors by Matt Milla, letters by Simon Bowland
More than half my pull this week was Fear Itself tie-ins and, bless them, they just weren't very good. At least as single issues, the final stories will probably shape up fine but most of them are are in their second issue; we see the Juggernaut being unstoppable, Man-Thing sensing fear, Herc hitting stuff, and Hulk... uh, hitting stuff, but there wasn't a whole lot of meat on any of them.
Fear Itself: Deadpool, however, is exactly as much fun as a Deadpool mini written by Doctor McNinja's Chris Hastings should be. In short, Deadpool, disguised as the "Spectre of Mass Destruction", has convinced The Walrus that he was chosen as one of the Worthy, and sics him on a small town in New Mexico so he can come in and save the day, for a price.
Everything actually seems to be going according to plan, until werewolves, confederate gold and "plumbers" get thrown into the mix things take a turn for the unbelievable: it looks like Deadpool may not actually be able to beat the Walrus. Every event needs something silly to lighten things up a little, and for Fear Itself, this is the perfect diversion.
Best Comic This Week:
WITCH DOCTOR
Witch Doctor #2, written by Brandon Seifert, art by Lukas Ketner, colors by Sunny Gho
Going to be honest here: almost gave this one to Daredevil too. Really liked that book. But I really liked this one too, and I don't think I could say much more about DD anyways.
Where the first issue introduced the main characters and the world they exist in, this issue (another #2 this week) did more to set up the overarcing story of this first* four-issue arc, while still acting as a perfectly delightful stand-alone story. And while this issue doesn't have quite the same medical-procedural feel as the first one, the elements are still there laid over its excellent balance of horror and comedy work. And while not laying on the absurdism as thick as, say, the Amazing Screw-On Head, this is still a very funny book, albeit dark humor at times it was still literally laugh-out-loud at some moments. And that aside, it balances the rest out with an excellent supernatural-horror story, with this issue bringing on both elements of fae folk and Cthulhu mythos, all filtered through a world that views these creatures and occurances as science as much as magic, balancing the two in a unique way instead of picking one or the other. Ketner provides some great art on the book, great characters and the monster designs are just the right kind of creepy, with the almost-but-not-really-human cuckoos, and what I'm assuming is a Deep One showing up at the end there. Again, this book is House meets Hellboy, and it's brilliant.
*First, but thankfully not last, but it was announced today at the San Diego Skybound panel that there will be a second four-issue mini after this first one finishes. I know it's just day one, but there's a decent chance this might be my favorite news to come out of SDCC.
The Best Comics That Weren't Daredevil This Week:
BEST OF THE REST
Spent so much time talking about one book this week, so figured I'd quickly go through some of the books I ignored. Which is basically a return of the Super-Quick Review. As I touched on earlier in a few spots, there were a lot of books that just felt... inconsequential this week:
Gates of Gotham #3 (Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgens, Trevor McCarthy) was probably the strongest of the lot, balancing the primary story of the terrorist with the flashbacks to the Gates of old Gotham and Dick's insecurities of filling in Bruce's shoes (shoes he'll be giving up in a month or so anyways but still good).
Power Girl #26 (Matthew Sturges, Hendrey Prasteya) was a good issue, a classic super-hero story with some solid art, but especially winding down this close to the relaunch, there wasn't much of an impact to it. Especially since as of now there's no plans to catch her on the other side of it, although I'll continue hoping otherwise.
Herc #5 (Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Neil Edwards) was a fun issue with good moments (and an Ares wicker man) but again from the perspective of this week's issue it's just something of a bridge between setting up the Fear Itself tie-in and concluding it.
Hulk #37 (Jeff Parker, Elena Casagrande) on the other hand is in that staging mode. However, it was, in the end, people watching the events of Fear Itself (mostly, Red Hulk going up against Angrir) from their monitors; Hawkeye and Mockingbird in Avengers towers, and MODOK and Zero-One in their respective bases of operation. Again, it's not bad, but it's setting up the chess board at this point.
Uncanny X-Men #541 (Kieron Gillen, Greg Land) basically left the mutants exactly where they started in the issue, short of a few failed contingencies to contain Cain, the plot didn't move forward at all.
Fearsome Four #2 (Brandon Montclare, Simon Bisley, Ryan Bodenheim, Ray-Anthony Height, Don Ho) is still kind of an odd book I'm not exactly getting into, but this issue took some fun, rapid turns that I definitely want to see where it's going to go from here. Which is good, because I'd be picking this series up either way, anyways.
Man-Thing Of The Week:
MAN-THING
Almost went with the Fantastic Four #1 homage cover, but look at this guy. Adorbs. Totes adorbs.
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