Covered this edition: DC's Young Animals Ashcan, Avatarex #1, Batman #4, Bombshells #16, Green Lantern #4, Harley Quinn #1, Invincible Iron Man #12, Moon Knight #5, Nightwing #2, Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1, and Superman #4.
DC's Young Animal Ashcan (DC)
Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, My Chemical Romance) has finally made his way to DC, and is helping launch what is kind of Vertigo 2.0, reimagining some of the company's unused properties from a new perspective, starting with a couple of titles inspired by ones that helped launch Vertigo itself, Shade, the Changing Girl (originally Shade, the Changing Man) and Doom Patrol, which Way is writing (along with co-writing Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, which is probably the title I'm most interested in; the fourth in Young Animal's debut set is Mother Panic, which seems to be the imprint's Batman title). What I love about Way's approach to Young Animal is built into his introduction from this preview: "With a monthly book, it is real seat-of-your-pants comic making, and you sort of have an end in sight, but you don't know exactly when you'll get there." It's a refreshing perspective on the nature of writing at the Big Two, whether or not you have your own imprint. The ashcan was done in the style of the old Who's Who comics, with profile pages for key characters in the upcoming launches, plus some artwork. Michael Avon Oeming, who helped create Powers with Brian Michael Bendis and Mice Templar with Bryan JL Glass, does art for Cave Carson, and it's weird seeing him do humans again. I know people are probably more familiar with his Powers work (which has since become one of the many streaming TV shows people can obsess over), but I know him better for his Mice Templar, so...it's weird seeing him do humans again. I'm so glad DC is doing Young Animal.
Avatarex #1 (Graphic India)
Now that I've finally gotten a copy of the debut issue, there's not a ton of difference between what inside and what was previously featured in the FCBD release, but all the same, I love that Grant Morrison is exploring the idea of a superhero who has no idea how complicated the modern world really is in relation to superheroes, which in conception is almost like how Marvel was originally telling its Thor stories with the Don Blake character.
Batman #4 (DC)
Tom King's the first one advancing his Rebirth story by getting to the point where Gotham (the superhero) cracks, while also making a strong Suicide Squad connection, which is hugely smart, with Amanda Waller making one of the keenest observations ever in a Batman comic: "Zero Year. Owls. The Joker. The Joker again. Bloom. Plus all your colorful friends [referring to other villainous foes]. Ever since you arrived, Gotham has been on fire. This is America. We don't stand idly by while our cities burn." While certainly New Orleans and Detroit might argue with that over the past decade, it's interesting, because we're so used to Batman essentially operating in a vacuum, existing in a chaotic environment with one crisis after the other, and only him capable of intervening. I know Scott Snyder (and Christopher Nolan, in The Dark Knight Rises) came up with certain reasons why soldiers couldn't disrupt Zero Year, but it's been traditional to let Batman exist in his own little world, and continue a war that never seemed to get better and in some respects get progressively worse without anyone else ever stepping in (the No Mans Land arc is probably archetypal in this regard). I'm not at all surprised that it's King penning this insight. I figure it'll play into the future of his run, too.
DC Comics Bombshells #16 (DC)
I figured I would finally have a look inside one of these, and saw that one of the stories in this issue features Mera, who in recent years, thanks to Geoff Johns, has risen to costar status in Aquaman stories, so I bought the comic and found it well worth it. I'm familiar with Marguerite Bennett as a presence, but this is the first time I've really found her notable. The lead story is kind of like the DC superheroine version of Kurtis Wiebe's Peter Panzerfaust, which updated the Peter Pan story in a WWII context. Obviously a DC equivalent would be backtracking back to the company's roots. It was a fun read. But the Mera story, as I figured, was more interesting. This version of the Atlantis saga puts her squarely in the lead, with the monarchic saga (Game of Thrones fans will appreciate it) at the fore, with Arthur Curry (Aquaman) tagging along. I honestly have no idea why she hasn't already gotten an ongoing series. It would almost be a better sell than Aquaman at this point. Bennett would be an ideal writer, naturally...
Green Lanterns #4 (DC)
Sam Humphries continues his exploration of Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz as they learn to trust each other. I'm so, so happy this series is happening. Every now and then, this franchise benefits greatly from the introduction of new leads, and Humphries is proving that all over again.
Harley Quinn #1 (DC)
Blatantly a continuation of the recent series (it figures, with Harley), with some quick reintroductions, including Red Tool, the parody of Deadpool that's been featured previously. (It's only natural; Harley is DC's Deadpool, after all.)
Invincible Iron Man #12 (Marvel)
I figured I'd check back in with Bendis and Tony Stark, what with Civil War II going on and the announced Riri Williams era that will follow it. Bendis is writing the cinematic Iron Man so thoroughly it's almost disappointing at this point, but I'm also the guy who had no idea why Marvel wasn't doing that already.
Moon Knight #5 (Marvel)
Jeff Lemire's masterful saga continues and/or concludes, depending on your level of mental engagement. Marc Specter, by the end of the issue, has confronted his psychiatric issues, realizing that it's Khonshu who's been messing with him, only to be booted into a different persona, Steven Grant. Lemire is being incredibly thorough and comprehensive, and you don't have to be a long-time fan, or at least know vaguely the Moon Knight backstory, to follow along. The best thing about Marvel, and DC, is that these minor characters do get to have comics this rich, the most daring and experimental stuff from the mainstream, and sometimes, the best, like Lemire's Moon Knight.
Nightwing #2 (DC)
As someone who hasn't really read a great Nightwing comic since the Dixon/Grayson era (aside from the brilliant Grayson: Futures End one-shot), it's so nice to be reading one that totally gets what the character is all about, and what he represents, which as described in this issue: "hip new version of an old beloved product." At his best, Nightwing really is Batman, but less grim. I mean, wasn't that the whole idea of Robin to begin with, making the Dark Knight more accessible?
Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1 (DC)
Rob Williams, at least in this debut, doesn't arrive in the title with the same thunderclap that he brought to Martian Manhunter, but that may be due to the fact that this is a concept that kind of overshadows the messenger. Just look at the reaction to the movie. (Critics hated it because it sells the concept of superheroes too strongly, which is why they've hated most of DC's movies; Marvel's tend to be far more flippant about it, which is why critics tend to love them, because that's how they approach superheroes, too.) Anyway, the issue is really an introduction to Rick Flag, the ringmaster of this circus, the military leader tasked with keeping Task Force X in-line. Williams has President Obama (in image if not by name) talk about the moral repugnance of the team, while Amanda Waller argues that in the grand tradition of black ops apologists, this nasty work is necessary to maintain the goodness everyone prefers to think about. This is clearly a military title (the movie got that, too; it's no surprise that director David Ayer has Fury under his belt, along with all the grey areas explored in other movies like Training Day, which he wrote, and End of Watch, the previous directorial effort I've seen, which was brilliant), and I'm not sure previous incarnations got that. Hopefully Williams keeps that in mind.
Superman #4 (DC)
It's so good to see Patrick Gleason back on art. I realize the twice-monthly shipping schedule will probably prevent him from doing so every issue, but as much as I admire his writing ability, too, I can't help but long to see his artwork help lead the storytelling. I loved seeing Bibbo (one of the signature '90s supporting characters), and the Kryptonian ghosts end up not being adversaries, as they at first seemed. I hope fans are appreciating this run as much as I am.
Showing posts with label Avatarex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avatarex. Show all posts
Monday, August 8, 2016
Monday, May 9, 2016
Reading Comics 186 "Free Comic Book Day 2016"
So, Saturday was National Comic Book Geek Day, otherwise known as Free Comic Book Day, which to further clarify (because every time I bring up to my sisters, they assume you can pick up just any comic for free), is when pretty much every publisher puts out a special release that's absolutely free. It's the best comics advertising of the year, and what they provide often gives you keen insight to what they consider important.
Take DC, for instance. This year they published a special reprint edition of Suicide Squad, somewhat obviously because the next DC movie is...Suicide Squad. But more importantly, because DC's next big event is DC Rebirth...which is just around the corner, and the big reveals are waiting to be discovered in Justice League #50 and DC Rebirth Special. So this year there wasn't really much point in doing something other than what it did for the freebie. The company has brownie points to earn for its next movie, because no one actually thought Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was as cool as DC did, and Deadpool looked like it just created a revolution earlier this year, and so yeah, the somewhat tonally-similar Suicide Squad looks like a pretty good horse to back.
But enough about that. But a little more about movies! Because after visiting my local haunt, I went and saw Captain America: Civil War. It was a pretty good movie, all told. It's my favorite Avengers movie, somewhat easily, I might add. Although plot-wise it's full of holes (about as many as people tried really hard to see in Batman v Superman), it does the Marvel method better than any other in that franchise to date. So that's pretty cool.
Getting back to the comics, my local haunt put a three-book maximum, and so I had to be pretty careful. The first choice was really obvious, and so that left two. I'll walk you through my thought process:
Avatarex FCBD Special Preview (Graphic India)
This is Grant Morrison. You know Grant Morrison, right? Chances are, if you've read this blog at all, you'll catch a hint that he's one of my favorite comic book writers. So this was the gimme. Avatarex is something I first learned about last year, but it was a pretty exclusive affair in 2015, being available only through a special online bundle (I assume it was digital, but Graphic India did not go out of its way to make this easy to decipher). Once I'd read this preview, I found out what Avatarex is all about. Basically, it's Morrison's modern 18 Days, featuring Superman as depicted in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. The whole thought process is very clearly spelled out in the preview. Also included in the preview is an excerpt from 18 Days, which is a project I've wandered from recently but fully intend to read completely at some point, because it's fascinating. This is the primordial superhero epic, the Crisis in Ancient India, as it were. Morrison himself isn't writing the complete story, which is part of the reason I've found it easy to stray, but it's such powerful stuff, a vision Graphic India would really have needed to screw up. And thankfully, from everything I've read to date, the company really hasn't. Which is really good. It's also good that we're getting a writer of Morrison's caliber presenting comics from a totally different landscape than we're used to. And bringing his A-game...
Civil War II FCBD (Marvel)
Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung present this preview of the upcoming sequel (-ish thing). In terms of what they present here, I'm glad I read, and relished, Charles Soule's Secret Wars effort, because as of this material, I have no idea what the fight will be about. This is more like random material they tossed in (which is kind of how most of Captain America: Civil War plays out, but again, I say that out of admiration, because eventually, weird logic ensues), including completely downplaying Thanos. (Somewhere along the way, I have to assume someone making the movies decided Thanos wasn't as important to the overall arc as Joss Whedon suggested, because he's been almost completely insignificant, even in Guardians of the Galaxy.) Unlike the reprint synergy DC brought to FCBD this year, Marvel's just reads cynically. Which is weird, because Bendis is literally one of the chief sources of inspiration that brought about the hugely successful movies, and his work subsequently just looks like afterthought. Even weirder, the special also slips in a random All-New, All-Different Avengers excerpt, which is Mark Waid literally riffing on last year's Ant-Man. I just don't get it. Here's Marvel doing exactly what DC usually does, and ending up looking like it wasted the whole thing. But at least it reminds everyone that Marvel's got comics, too...
Valiant 4001 A.D. FCBD Special (Valiant)
This is a company I've grown quite fond of in the last year. I haven't been reading a lot of it lately, but it made for an easy selection, because there are various previews of upcoming projects, including the titular latest crossover event and Divinity II, both from writer Matt Kindt, who is easily the company's greatest steal, if nothing else than for his Divinity. The second volume of this saga looks just as fascinating as the first, with Kindt pulling back the curtain a little and having a look at the two cosmonauts left behind last time and maybe more about what's really going on. I look forward to reading more of that.
And finally, I was also to slip into another shop later in the day. Predictably, the pickings were slim, but I came away with:
Camp Midnight FCBD Special (Image)
In the spirit of Lumberjanes (which is a huge buzz book I've sampled thanks to comiXology), Camp Midnight is a young readers adventure set in summer camp. The writer is Steven S. Seagle, whom I'd shockingly not yet made a label here, despite his rather formative accomplishments (including the seminal if sparsely-referenced It's a Bird... Superman graphic novel). He's part of the creative group behind Ben 10 and Big Hero 6. And his writing chops are in evidence here, which is an excerpt from a graphic novel. A lot of times, material aimed at younger readers tries to be too clever, so that it ore represents Adult Swim-inspired material like Archer, or the caffeine-inspired cartoons that kids have today. Seagle wisely backs off from that approach, but still maintains an edge. Glad I had a second chance to catch a look.
It's also worth talking a little about the character of FCBD as I experienced it this year, in Virginia. My last two experiences were in Maine, and waiting in line there was a little like experiencing riffraff congregating (plus some Stormtrooper cosplay). This year I had a better sense of the comic book fans who saw this as a special occasion. I got to overhear, and participate, in some of the better chatter I've heard at a comic book store. These places can sometimes be a wretched hive of scum and villainy (it's no wonder geeks largely define the dialogue of the Internet), so it was nice to experience something better for a change.
On the whole, it was a pretty good day.
Take DC, for instance. This year they published a special reprint edition of Suicide Squad, somewhat obviously because the next DC movie is...Suicide Squad. But more importantly, because DC's next big event is DC Rebirth...which is just around the corner, and the big reveals are waiting to be discovered in Justice League #50 and DC Rebirth Special. So this year there wasn't really much point in doing something other than what it did for the freebie. The company has brownie points to earn for its next movie, because no one actually thought Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was as cool as DC did, and Deadpool looked like it just created a revolution earlier this year, and so yeah, the somewhat tonally-similar Suicide Squad looks like a pretty good horse to back.
But enough about that. But a little more about movies! Because after visiting my local haunt, I went and saw Captain America: Civil War. It was a pretty good movie, all told. It's my favorite Avengers movie, somewhat easily, I might add. Although plot-wise it's full of holes (about as many as people tried really hard to see in Batman v Superman), it does the Marvel method better than any other in that franchise to date. So that's pretty cool.
Getting back to the comics, my local haunt put a three-book maximum, and so I had to be pretty careful. The first choice was really obvious, and so that left two. I'll walk you through my thought process:
Avatarex FCBD Special Preview (Graphic India)
This is Grant Morrison. You know Grant Morrison, right? Chances are, if you've read this blog at all, you'll catch a hint that he's one of my favorite comic book writers. So this was the gimme. Avatarex is something I first learned about last year, but it was a pretty exclusive affair in 2015, being available only through a special online bundle (I assume it was digital, but Graphic India did not go out of its way to make this easy to decipher). Once I'd read this preview, I found out what Avatarex is all about. Basically, it's Morrison's modern 18 Days, featuring Superman as depicted in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. The whole thought process is very clearly spelled out in the preview. Also included in the preview is an excerpt from 18 Days, which is a project I've wandered from recently but fully intend to read completely at some point, because it's fascinating. This is the primordial superhero epic, the Crisis in Ancient India, as it were. Morrison himself isn't writing the complete story, which is part of the reason I've found it easy to stray, but it's such powerful stuff, a vision Graphic India would really have needed to screw up. And thankfully, from everything I've read to date, the company really hasn't. Which is really good. It's also good that we're getting a writer of Morrison's caliber presenting comics from a totally different landscape than we're used to. And bringing his A-game...
Civil War II FCBD (Marvel)
Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung present this preview of the upcoming sequel (-ish thing). In terms of what they present here, I'm glad I read, and relished, Charles Soule's Secret Wars effort, because as of this material, I have no idea what the fight will be about. This is more like random material they tossed in (which is kind of how most of Captain America: Civil War plays out, but again, I say that out of admiration, because eventually, weird logic ensues), including completely downplaying Thanos. (Somewhere along the way, I have to assume someone making the movies decided Thanos wasn't as important to the overall arc as Joss Whedon suggested, because he's been almost completely insignificant, even in Guardians of the Galaxy.) Unlike the reprint synergy DC brought to FCBD this year, Marvel's just reads cynically. Which is weird, because Bendis is literally one of the chief sources of inspiration that brought about the hugely successful movies, and his work subsequently just looks like afterthought. Even weirder, the special also slips in a random All-New, All-Different Avengers excerpt, which is Mark Waid literally riffing on last year's Ant-Man. I just don't get it. Here's Marvel doing exactly what DC usually does, and ending up looking like it wasted the whole thing. But at least it reminds everyone that Marvel's got comics, too...
Valiant 4001 A.D. FCBD Special (Valiant)
This is a company I've grown quite fond of in the last year. I haven't been reading a lot of it lately, but it made for an easy selection, because there are various previews of upcoming projects, including the titular latest crossover event and Divinity II, both from writer Matt Kindt, who is easily the company's greatest steal, if nothing else than for his Divinity. The second volume of this saga looks just as fascinating as the first, with Kindt pulling back the curtain a little and having a look at the two cosmonauts left behind last time and maybe more about what's really going on. I look forward to reading more of that.
And finally, I was also to slip into another shop later in the day. Predictably, the pickings were slim, but I came away with:
Camp Midnight FCBD Special (Image)
In the spirit of Lumberjanes (which is a huge buzz book I've sampled thanks to comiXology), Camp Midnight is a young readers adventure set in summer camp. The writer is Steven S. Seagle, whom I'd shockingly not yet made a label here, despite his rather formative accomplishments (including the seminal if sparsely-referenced It's a Bird... Superman graphic novel). He's part of the creative group behind Ben 10 and Big Hero 6. And his writing chops are in evidence here, which is an excerpt from a graphic novel. A lot of times, material aimed at younger readers tries to be too clever, so that it ore represents Adult Swim-inspired material like Archer, or the caffeine-inspired cartoons that kids have today. Seagle wisely backs off from that approach, but still maintains an edge. Glad I had a second chance to catch a look.
It's also worth talking a little about the character of FCBD as I experienced it this year, in Virginia. My last two experiences were in Maine, and waiting in line there was a little like experiencing riffraff congregating (plus some Stormtrooper cosplay). This year I had a better sense of the comic book fans who saw this as a special occasion. I got to overhear, and participate, in some of the better chatter I've heard at a comic book store. These places can sometimes be a wretched hive of scum and villainy (it's no wonder geeks largely define the dialogue of the Internet), so it was nice to experience something better for a change.
On the whole, it was a pretty good day.
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