Okay, in lieu of actual reviews (for the most part), I figured I'd try something new for at least a couple of weeks. Since I don't even come remotely close to reading most of what comes out in a week, I can't really comment on how good certain books are on the whole, but I can sure as hell rank them in relation to whatever else I read this week. So I cooked up some superlatives, including some quick ones that occur to me while reading and some basic categories to write more in-depth about for the comics that really stuck out from my pull in a given week. Let's just see how this goes.
First up, the quickies:
The Most Conservatively-Dressed Harley Quinn I've Seen This Week:
ARKHAM CITY
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| Arkham City #3, art by Carlos D'Anda, color by Gabe Eltaeb |
Practically a nun's habit next to her new work duds.
The Best Role Model, You Know, For The Kids, This Week:
THE GOON
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| The Goon #34, art by Eric Powell |
The Best Reason To Tune In Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel This Week:
BATMAN, INC.
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| Batman Incorporated #7, art by Chris Burnham, colors by Nathan Fairbairn |
And here I thought it was only Marvel TRON-ing up their characters.
This is only made better by how down-to-earth the actual issue was. Granted, there were mind-control drugs and a "ghost shirt", but for Batman, Inc. still pretty low-key. And then THAT happened.
The Most Cuddwy-Uddwiest Symbiote EVAR This Week:
IT'S A TIE! VENOM AND ANTI-VENOM
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| Venom #4, art by Tony Moore, inks by Crimelab! Syndicate, colors by John Rauch Amazing Spider-Man #664, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, inks by Klaus Johnson, colors by Matt Hollingsworth |
For a symbiote fan this was a great week: Got not only an excellent Venom comic from Rick Remender, but a great Eddie Brock story from Dan Slott and they're both SOOOO CUUUUUUUTE. It seems insane to even say it, but especially the way Slott writes Brock like an eager puppy trying to win over Spidey is just adorable.
And now, the real categories:
Best Cover This Week:
GREEN ARROW INDUSTRIES
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| Green Arrow Industries one-shot, cover art by Viktor Kalvachev |
The comic inside was pretty good, but that cover is just plain bad-ass.
Best Art This Week:
TONY MOORE, VENOM
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| Venom #4, art by Tony Moore, inks by Crimelab! Syndicate, colors by John Rauch |
This is going to be the hardest to pick each week, I'm sure. I was torn pretty heavily between most of the books I grabbed. As usual Jock and Chris Burnham were killing it on their Bat-titles, Hester providing some beautiful kaiju work on Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters (dude can draw a Battra something fierce) and Eric Powell is back doing some beautiful work on The Goon after... what, two years? I was also very impressed with Ibraim Roberson and especially Jim Charalampidis' coloring on Uncanny X-Men.
But having to pick one, I think this week I enjoyed Tony Moore's work on Venom best overall. He did some stunning work with both forms of Venom as Flash fought the symbiote to varying degrees of success, that creepy-as-hell new Jack-o-Lantern and his little toys, and the scene with Flash, Betty and Peter all hanging out on the couch, even if Flash looked a bit too... Rick-Grimes-y for me. But the real thing that put this in the lead for me was the fight with Spider-Man that took up almost half the issue, an utterly beautiful action sequence.
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| Venom #4, art by Tony Moore, inks by Crimelab! Syndicate, colors by John Rauch |
Best Event Tie-In This Week:
FLASHPOINT: PROJECT SUPERMAN
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| Project Superman #1, cover art by Gene Ha |
This was a light category this week, since I didn't grab any Fear Itself tie-ins at all this week. I'm not even sure if there were any besides Black Widow, actually. It could have been an even lighter week since I haven't been following Flashpoint at all, except to pick up the Frankenstein after I heard how good it was. I enjoyed it if not too impressed overall, but it did raise one question that I hadn't thought of previously: the role of Superman in the Flashpoint universe. Having followed the goings-on only through blogs and news sites, I had never heard the Man of Steel mentioned except in those initial teasers way back when. Finally, curiosity got the better of me this week and I grabbed Project Superman along with the Green Arrow one-shot. Almost grabbed the Hal Jordan book too until I saw in the previews that it revisited the same death-of-Hal's-father scene I'd seen ad naseum, and having that be all I knew about the book was enough to keep me from picking it up. I doubt it's their intentions, but those previews, available through DC's digital comic store app and Comixology, tend to show me which books I shouldn't pick up, rather than pique my interest in new ones.
While the Green Arrow Industries book was enjoyable, and had some great Ig Guara art, it didn't bowl me over. Especially as a one-shot, it felt more like it was setting things up that'll now never come to pass rather than telling a complete story. I would read a mini of it, or even an ongoing if such a thing were feasible but, alas, that's all it was. On the other hand, Project Superman was a fun book, in parts a unique twist on the Bizarro character (a nice subtle reference in the logo I missed initially) and to an extent DC's take on the Captain America origin filtered through the Superman mythos. The book answered a lot of the questions I had about Metropolis and where Superman was in all this alternate reality deal, but left plenty more to be explored in the remaining two issues. I'm hardly equipped to say how this fares compared to the rest of the Flashpoint titles, but at least for what I read this week I can safely say it was my favorite.
Best Digital Comic This Week:
TIE! GLADSTONE AND GRAVEYARD
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| Gladstone's School For World Conquerors #2, cover art by Armand Villvert, colors by Carlos Carrasco and Andre Poulain Graveyard of Empires #1 , cover art ny Paul Azaceta. colors by Matt Wilson |
It's hard to say something is the best digital comic of the week, since I'm not really reading anything that's not also available in floppies, but I'm slowly getting more into the digital scene, setting some books aside to only read in digital formats, such as Daomu and Nonplayer. Mostly the books I can get cheaper digitally than in print, because otherwise I kind of fail to see the point, which also means I probably won't be picking up too many digital-day-and-dates (which effectively cut my potential digital pull in half this week). So in effect, this category could also be named Best Comic That I Could Have Read Two Weeks ago. That doesn't change the fact that they were two awesome, albeit very different, books.
Gladstone's School For World Conquerors is a wonderful all-ages book, and while issue two didn't have quite the wide range of characters introduced in the first issue, it did more to expand upon the world these kids live in, or are being shielded from. With beautiful, stylish art by Armand Villavert, enhanced by Carlos Carrasco and Andre Poulain's vivid coloring, the book has fun, and great action suited for any audience, and also features El Campeon, mystical luchadore from writer Mark Andrew Smith's equally-fun other book, The Amazing Joy Buzzards.
Alternatively, Graveyard of Empires is definitely for an older audience. The first in a four part series, the book delves into the lives of a U.S. marine garrison stationed in Afghanistan and their dealings with the locals, both non-combatants and terrorist agents. The book takes a stark look at the very harsh reality these soldiers are living, and it would be an incredible war book even if the zombies didn't show up. Oh, yeah, then zombies show up. I'll be the first to decry zombie stories as passé, but a book this good is strong enough to make up for it, and then some. Only adding to the book is the art by Paul Azaceta, who I love (his work on Amazing Spider-Man is basically single-handedly responsible for me picking the book up again and getting back into comics entirely after a slight lapse).
I may have read these digitally, and feel free to grab them the same way at Comixology and save yourself a buck over the print copies, but I definitely recommend grabbing both these books any way you can.
Best Comic I Read This Week, Period:
WITCH DOCTOR #1
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| Witch Doctor #1, cover art by Lukas Ketnet |
What I read Witch Doctor sounded kind of fun, so I tacked it onto my pile while at the shop. As you may have surmised from where it landed on here, I ended up loving this book. Written by Brandon Stewart, it's part horror comic (with some beautiful, atmospheric, demonly art by Lukas Ketner), part medical drama, with the unconventional title character, Doctor Vincent Morrow, probably drawing as many similarities to Gregory House as monster hunters like Hellboy or an old Hammer film's Van Helsing, all done with a wonderful sense of humor. This first issue builds a unique, sardonic world where mad science, demonology and general practitioners collide. We're introduced to Dr. Morrow's team, the straight-laced, recently ripped from his real-world medicine Eric Gast, and the as of yet fairly-mysterious Penny Dreadful. The team deals with maladies outside of the typical doctor's repetoire, such as the demonic possession of a small boy in this issue, with a beautiful mix of real-world science and traditional folklore. It hinted at some of the parts of the world being built beyond what we're seeing; I was especially intrigued by the discourse about angels, and the fact that they apparently have "shells" has left me very eager to see where this series is going to take some of the more traditional Judeo-Christian ideas, which I am always happy to see be given a good shake-up every now and then. Overall, I was more than happy with this book, and the only complaint I could possibly have with it is that it's a 4-part series instead of an ongoing, because I already know I'm going to want more of this when it's over.
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