Teenage Wasteland

Here I go again.  I really shouldn’t have, but I opened a box at Heroes & Dragons, meaning I will be reading comics on a regular basis again, in a more limited capacity than I have in the past, when I didn’t have a ton of impulse control.  This time I’ll be reading on the stuff I really want to read.  Some of my selections have been shaped by the extended trial I’ve been on for the past year, some by decisions I made before it.  It’s really an effort to read books that may be unavailable typically, things I don’t want to miss, things I won’t have had the ability to catch if I hadn’t made this decision.  For instance, as visitors to Comics Reader will know by now, I’m a fan of Oni Press’s WASTELAND, a comic that spent a great deal of time recently not actually being published, but the circumstances that forced that particular break were recently resolved, and throughout 2012 it’s been back on a regular basis.  I haven’t seen it in any comic book store I’ve visited since Newbury Comics, so in order to read it without a lot of hassle, opening up a box was a decision that was more or less necessary.

There are two kinds of people who read comics: those with arrested development and those who are simply developing.  I don’t mean to disparage either group, but the fact is, it takes a special kind of person to be interested in stories told in illustrated form, especially when the most popular stories in the medium feature outsized personalities in colorful costumes.  Part of what drove me to reading comics in the first place was vindicated frustration from a childhood deprived of them when I was most keen to do so; I’ve been playing catch-up for twenty years.  I was a teenager by the time I was able to fulfill this ambition, and it so happened that at the time, there were a lot of comics being published that rewarded continued interest, and that helped develop a habit.  Yes, reading comics is a habit; otherwise they wouldn’t be released in monthly increments.

Again, none of this is a bad thing.  In fact, I think it’s a very good thing, because comics have an ability to remove the filter many storytellers force on themselves, making their tales more mundane, more ordinary, more constrained by things that have actually happened.  That in itself isn’t a bad thing, and in some instances can be a very good thing, but the universal is at its best in the sublime, when it activates the imagination.  There are more benefits to looking beyond the simple and embracing the abstract.  Comics do this better than any other expressive form except perhaps music.  For some reason, but you combine a static image with words, the words become more important, if you let them.

That being said, let’s look at some examples:

AQUAMAN #8 (DC)

Geoff Johns continues to expand his vision of Aquaman beyond the simple parody that pop culture has embraced in the past ten years, abetted by lackluster comic book portrayals in endless relaunches throughout many decades (Tad Williams, I contend, remains the sole exception) since the character’s creation.  Some creators have understood the potential of his unique setting, the mythology that Aquaman alone can truly tap into, but Johns is looking beyond that simple vision and tapping into how Aquaman’s life and career can be shaped outside his connections to the Justice League and embrace, like his Green Lantern stories, a far greater world than ever before.  To wit, Johns opens this issue with the young Arthur Curry attempting to distance himself from humans who could never understand him, following the death of his father, thrusting him into a dawning awareness of his Atlantean heritage.  He eventually meets others who understand him, but they aren’t the Justice League, but rather a whole myriad of outcasts.  As I’ve been saying, anyone who hasn’t read AQUAMAN yet should probably start doing so soon, because if history is any indication, Johns has a lot more planned, and this is just the foundation.

THE AVENGERS #1 (Marvel)

A reprint of the 2010 relaunch, Brian Michael Bendis (guru of all things Earth’s Mightiest Heroes) picks up the pieces of many conflicts he himself has helped engineer, reassembling the team once more and then bringing back time-traveling Kang for a more specific purpose.  There are moments where the gravity of what everyone’s been through is clear, but there’s also the trademark flippant style of Bendis that has likely built him his following (it’s no wonder he moonlights as the Ultimate chronicler of Spider-Man, since that’s his natural character vein).  This one’s a freebie, which is really smart, given the movie that pretty much everyone is going to see this summer, many in multiple visits.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 (Marvel)

I got this reprint, too (had to pay for it, though), the one that looks like the most obvious gimmick in a long series of Marvel events since Bendis came aboard, but it spears someone really did figure out that there’s a story to be had, too.  Bendis started the ball rolling with HOUSE OF M (not to mention “Disassembled”), but the House of Ideas finally figured out what to do with mutant messiah Hope, too, tying her in with the Phoenix saga that was the highlight of the Claremont era that made the X-Men rise to the prominence it still enjoys today.  If this event figures out how to handle all of what it promises competently, it may be the most important story from Marvel in the past decade.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #5 (DC)

Seeing this even earlier issue from the story I snapped up in one of my previous visits, I couldn’t pass it up.  I am now thoroughly convinced that the series has already earned a prominent spot in the eventual 2012 QB50.  Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are creating the most important in-continuity Batman stories, period.

DEMON KNIGHTS #7 (DC)

Another issue that fills in one of my gaps, Paul Cornell’s period heroics are just as astonishing as everything else he does, featuring historic heroes in ways only Grant Morrison previously approached with SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY.  If you want, consider this an ongoing series inspired by some of the mini-series in that project.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #8 (DC)

Geoff Johns again, once again putting the focus on a relative outsider, approaching the League from the outside in.  This time it’s Green Arrow, more famously depicted as an older, more cynical hero obsessed with social causes and his own legacy.  As a younger version, he does seem a little more superfluous, so it’s no wonder the League wants nothing to do with him (even if they have other reasons besides), even when he finally, petulantly, gives voice to the reasons he wants to join, which more accurately reflect the Oliver Queen we know and love.  The backup Shazam feature continues, and is already a definitive version of the character.  But what else did you expect from Geoff Johns?

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #8 (DC)

I can’t decide whether I actually want to read this series on a regular basis, but I keep getting drawn to it because Jason Todd is such a compelling character, a damaged individual with a tragic past, sometimes awful tendencies, and a road to redemption.  Scott Lobdell has captured this perfectly, and Kenneth Rocafort is an extremely unusual artist for DC (the only negative this issue is the cartoonish fat woman who’s the villain of the story), and another strong draw.  Forget the backlash concerning the costume of Starfire.  You need to at least sample this series.

SAUCER COUNTRY #2 (Vertigo)

Sometimes it’s better to miss the first issue of a comic book, and in this case, it’s almost mandatory.  Arcadia Alvarado will be running for President, but she believes she was abducted by aliens.  Do you believe her?  That’s the whole thrust of this series from Paul Cornell, finally getting the chance to stretch himself a little, with a concept entirely created by himself, in a book that has the potential to be the next great Vertigo project. 

THE TWELVE #12 (Marvel)

WATCHMEN as retold by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston finally concludes.  Okay, it’s not really WATCHMEN, more like Captain America retold in the manner of WATCHMEN.  Regardless, this was an ambitious project of motivations and fate that proved fascinating and then frustrating when Straczynski took an extended break, leading many fans for several years to fear that it would never be concluded.  So important to Weston, actually, that he produced a one-shot on his own to continue the saga of the WWII heroes suspended and then revive in modern times, only to succumb to their own failings, THE TWELVE comes to a worthy if quiet conclusion, befitting its focus on character ahead of sensation.  Hopefully it will take its place among the seminal superhero stories.

WASTELAND #36 (Oni)

It’s a little strange for this reader to dive back into the series now that RESURRECTION artist Justin Greenwood has settling in as replacement for Christopher Mitten, whose distinctive style helped shape the early issues of Antony Johnston’s epic vision of the future, especially after having read (and written synopses for here at Comics Reader) the first six collected editions.  I have missed four issues between the last one featured in the paperbacks and what I was surprised to find waiting for me last week.  Michael and Abi, on their way to A-Ree-Yass-I, have stumbled into another town overrun with overblown egos.  If you were at all hesitant about WASTELAND before, it may be easier to catch exactly what this series is all about with these new issues, with new art but the same complex storytelling Johnston has been employing from the start.