Reading Comics #74 "Making History"

AvX #12 (Marvel)
writer: Jason Aaron
artist: Adam Kubert
Avengers was the big event at the movies, but in the comics, Marvel's 2012 story belonged to Avengers vs. X-Men, which has finally come to a close.  A mass collaboration between the company's so-called architects) (Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman), it's also a sequel of sorts to the classic "Dark Phoenix Saga" (featured in X-Men: The Last Stand) as well as House of M, and this basically means that the X-Men finally got to figure out how to level the playing field again.  The Scarlet Witch famously declared, "No more mutants" in House of M, and her subsequent absence was one of the defining elements of Avengers lore for the past decade (she finally returned in Avengers: The Children's Crusade).  This caused a rapid decline and possible extinction for mutant kind until the appearance of the so-called mutant messiah Hope.  AvX spent a lot of its time having the company's two most famous teams duke it out, ostensibly over control of the Phoenix, which eventually took control of Cyclops, who let the power go to his head.  In this issue he's defeated and the Phoenix is drawn out from him, and it falls to Hope and Scarlet Witch to decide what to do with the entity.  It's awesome that someone finally decided to do something notable with Hope, much less the Phoenix, and maybe killing off Professor X (which happened last issue) will stick this time, and Cyclops can become the new Magneto, if subsequent writers can exercise some restraint (though the fact that Captain America and Iron Man are once again bosom buddies despite the events of Civil War does not bode well for such a long-lasting change).  No, I did not read every issue, but it was certainly worth following, and this concluding issue does track well.

Action Comics #13 (DC) 
writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Travel Foreman
This issue has a kind of curious crossover appeal.  Grant Morrison's own celebrated Vertigo story We3 is certainly relevant to the issue, as is the Futurama episode "Jurassic Bark."  Hopefully you know the one.  Basically this is Morrison's Krypto story, though a lot of it also involves Phantom Zone villains and the like.  A lot of what Morrison has done in his run on Action Comics is provide a clear template on all the most notable elements of Superman lore, with an updated aesthetic that removes all its cobwebs.  One of the recurring pieces throughout the run is a gradual introduction of Mxyzptlk, the imp with the impossible name (and it also must be conquered backwards!) who has served as one of the most curious foes in the canon.  If anyone can make him work now, it's Morrison.  Sholly Fisch, meanwhile, emphasizes Krypto in his typically consummate backup feature, which has been another highlight of these comics.

Artifacts #s 17 & 19 (Top Cow)
writer: Ron Marz
artist: Stjepan Sejic
Preparing a script for a Top Cow talent contest has made me aware of the fact that I don't have a lot of practical experience with actual Top Cow comics.  This is a little surprising, because Ron Marz has been writing for them for several years now.  I became familiar with him (and a fan of his work) thanks to his Kyle Rayner years on Green Lantern.  He's worked hard to shape a working mythology for Top Cow's artifacts, originally represented in Witchblade and The Darkness, the latter of which is featured in the first of these two issues as Jackie Estacado concludes a confrontation with Tom Judge, the signature character of this particular series, which follows other similar mystical devices to the ones that helped define Top Cow in the first place.  All told, there are thirteen of them.  Judge isn't really defined by his artifact, however, but by how he attempts to navigate them and their bearers.  He's an ex-priest who now works for the FBI.  Apparently Top Cow has gone into Fringe territory by exploring subtly different versions of its familiar characters via an alternate reality in which old relationships can begin anew, which is what the second issue helps demonstrate with characters familiar to Angelus fans.  It's all pretty readable even for someone not terribly familiar with such nuances.  It's fair to say Top Cow does have a functioning superhero legacy developing, and Marz continues to be a strong part of making it happen.

Batman #0 (DC)
writer: Scott Snyder
artist: Greg Capullo
The lead story features a harbinger of the "Death of the Family" arc that features the return of the Joker, but its best aspect is Bruce Wayne's early attempts to figure out how to make his Batman function.  That's all well and good (and familiar to fans of Christopher Nolan's cinematic vision), but the highlight of the issue is James Tynion IV's backup feature (it's worth noting that Tynion has just launched Talon, a spinoff from the Court of Owls epic that dominated the title and franchise during its first year in the New 52 era), which follows Jim Gordon's decision to switch on the Bat-signal to hopefully make the citizens of Gotham aware of its strange new protector.  All of Batman's eventual allies see it, and the genius of it is that could easily inspire a whole series, something totally new to the franchise, exploring Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, and even Barbara Gordon before they don the costumes of Robin and Batgirl.  Drake's part of the story dominates it, and for a long-time fan of the character (who now appears in Teen Titans almost exclusively, but maintained one ongoing series or another from 1993 to 2011) it still manages to be a revelation, a truly fresh take.  He's a wunderkind, naturally, well before he wears a cape.  Jason is a tragic figure as always.  Dick tracks consistently, and is familiar to anyone who's been following Nightwing in the past year.  Who wouldn't want to read more of how Barbara first decided to be inspired more by the Dark Knight than her cop father?  Such a comic would be like Smallville reclaimed by its native land (a little more directly than Birthright).

Batwing #0 (DC)
writer: Judd Winick
artist: Marcus To
It's funny, because Judd Winick originally prided himself on launching Batwing without a traditional origin story...This is that story.  It's actually very familiar to what Lost did for six seasons.  David Zavimbi's journey to joining Batman Incorporated (through which he gets his nifty armor) is a uniquely African adventure (something I'm not sure Marvel's Black Panther has ever achieved).  Although I haven't read an issue of the series since its debut last fall, I've long considered Batwing to be one of the highlights of the New 52, something new, even if it's connected to something familiar.  Yet for all intents and purposes, Zavimbi lives in his own world, something Winick has appreciated.  He's exactly the kind of character the writer has always excelled developing.  Even if I only read sporadic issues, it's good knowing something like this exists, and this issue is as rewarding as I expected.

DC Universe Presents Kid Flash #12 (DC)
writer: Fabian Nicieza
artist: Jorge Jimenez
Like Tim Drake, Bart Allen has been playing in the New 52 sandbox, but almost exclusively in the pages of Teen Titans.  This is a rare opportunity to stretch his legs a little.  Nicieza proves an unexpectedly compelling chronicler of his hyperactive escapades.  Originally introduced by Mark Waid as a humorously immature speedster who grew up in virtual reality, Bart was shaped by Geoff Johns into Kid Flash nearly a decade ago in another Teen Titans.  Here the transformation truly seems complete.  No longer callow so much as cocksure, Bart Allen is still a remarkably unique character to read, as this issue proves.

DC Universe Presents #0 (DC)
writer: various
artist: various
The anthology series that has featured a number of different properties over the past year takes Zero Month as an opportunity to explore characters whose New 52 first wave titles were cancelled.  That means Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen, for instance, can have one more crack at O.M.A.C., though they take the opportunity to explore Brother Eye, the sentient satellite best known for wrecking havoc in Infinite Crisis.  James Robinson does for Mister Terrific more justice than his comic ever did, which is encouraging, since the character is due to play a role in Robinson's Earth 2.  The highlight for me, however, is the reunion of Great Ten collaborators Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel, who present a tale of Deadman, whose adventures launched this title (which to me was disappointing at the time, because I thought the momentum the character built from Brightest Day and Flashpoint would have led to an ongoing series, which I would certainly not mind from Bedard and McDaniel...), teaching him a lesson in humility (well, several).

The Flash #0 (DC)
writer: Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato
artist: Francis Manapul
I haven't read an issue of The Flash since Geoff Johns left the title prior to the New 52 relaunch.  It's not because I no longer care for the character, but that I've been waiting for Manapul (who was artist in the Johns run) to find his legs.  The Flash has increasingly become a character defined more by his personal story than his adventures for me, and it seemed that Manapul was content to leave the stories at the adventure level.  I knew the minute Zero Month was announced that I would likely read my first Flash in a year.  Yes, this is an origin issue, retelling the new narrative of Barry Allen's life, how his mother was murdered and his father was blamed for it, and how Barry has been driven ever since to discover the truth.  Becoming the Flash is almost besides the fact.  If the quality of this sample is any indication, I may be reading more in the future.

Green Lantern #13 (DC)
writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Doug Mahnke
Very much like Batwing above, this new phase of Green Lantern is reading like Lost, as Simon Baz and the narrative of not just his emerging career as a ring-bearer but his life begins to take shape.  Baz seems to have stumbled into circumstances the US government can't help but confuse with terrorist activities, but he's far more troubled by what he's done to his beloved sister's husband.  There's also this ring and the two strange people (Sinestro and Hal Jordan) who broadcast rescue requests when it started to fully activate.  He adopts the distinctive mask when he realizes it would be expedient given his legal troubles.  Other than that, his is a story that's still very much unfolding.  So too is the "Rise of the Third Army" arc in which the Guardians of the Universe, founders of the Green Lantern Corps, who have devised something of an organic version of Star Trek's Borg.  And on the final page, Simon Baz is introduced to the Justice League...

Jack Kirby (Bluewater)
writer: John Judy
artist: Paul Cox
One of the founding father of the comic book, Jack Kirby co-created almost every major Marvel superhero, and became known as "The King," revered in the industry and by his peers.  This is his story.  It almost reads like a lost issue of Fred Van Lente's Comic Book Comics, but otherwise is a fairly standard Bluewater biography, skirting a lot of details and emphasizing anecdotes, which is a little disappointing for anyone who wanted a little more depth, but a good overview, even if it begins to heavily focus on the things that went wrong in his career rather than everything he achieved and has inspired.

Superman #0 (DC)
writer: Scott Lobdell
artist: Kenneth Rocafort
The company's reward for a couple of creators fans don't seem to have enjoyed as much, perhaps because they've previously collaborated on the divisive Red Hood and the Outlaws.  But the force of their magic is undeniable, and it's remarkable that they've been given a major character and title to work on next.  As compared to the Morrison-powered Action Comics, Superman has had a rocky course in the New 52.  This is its third major creative change in a year.  Tonally, Lobdell immediately marks himself as comparable to Morrison's inclinations, particularly in the opening pages of the issue, in which Superman's dad Jor-El picks up the familiar refrain of the character, the lone scientific genius capable of foreseeing the fate of Krypton.  Lobdell makes it seem fresh, and Jor-El vital.  It's the second time this column I'll suggest that a Zero Month story could easily support its own series.  It's a bright start to a bold new era.

Ultimate Comics The Ultimates #15 (Marvel)
writer: Sam Humphries
artist: Billy Tan
It's something of an irony that the year the Avengers movie inspired by the Ultimates comics coincides at a time when the Ultimates are at their least accessible.  The whole point of Marvel's Ultimate line was to make its characters more accessible.  In recent comics the United States has apparently splintered apart.  Last time I checked that hadn't happened in the real world.  Humphries makes up for this with the big bomb in the aftermath of a recall election for the presidency (several years late, but it still brings to mind the memorable California gubernatorial fiasco that gave us the Governator), Captain America taking the highest rank in the government he's served since WWII.  It's a pretty huge development that I had to check in on.  This is the issue where he wins the election (more hype is given to the following one, in which he takes office).  It's a good yarn as Humphries relates it.

Controversies Edition!

ACTION COMICS #10 (DC)

Grant Morrison is probably the first writer after Geoff Johns to write the Justice League in the New 52.  Perhaps predictably, he goes against the grain.  This is the Morrison of JLA, but rather the one willing to subvert the mainstream, defy expectations, and end up with Superman as an outsider rather than the cheerful face of “normal.”  That’s about what Morrison has done with the Man of Steel since ALL STAR SUPERMAN, where he first postulated that Kal-El possesses a hyper sense of responsibility, rather than the more usual notion that he’s nothing more than a Big Blue Boy Scout.  He’s the one trying to get the team to have a little ambition, not to mention compassion, and if you really stop to think about it, it makes sense.  The rest of the team has very specific areas of interest and the one most identified as his opposite number is obsessive and controlling (that would be Batman, who even in Morrison’s interpretation of his best possible mode has established a network of allies that are most effective only in relation to him).  The thing that Morrison has been trying to stress in ACTION COMICS is the humanity of Clark Kent, which is an identity he readily sacrifices this issue (SPOILER ALERT, by the way), something he doesn’t even think twice about, because he’s more interested in his humanitarian mission than his own reputation.  Yes, he no doubt hears when Batman cracks that he’s going to be the League’s problem some day (and not in an IRREDEEMABLE way), but that’s not his problem, and he cares a great deal that his teammates don’t care about what he does.  That makes him irreplaceable.  Just like Grant Morrison.

AQUAMAN #9 (DC)

Okay, so this issues pretty much makes it official: Geoff Johns has gotten into GREEN LANTERN mode.  For the past few issues, he’s been exploring Aquaman’s association with a whole different set of superheroic allies from around the world, totally different from the Justice League, a lot more similar to him, actually.  He’s also brought back Black Manta, Aquaman’s greatest foe.  This issue, he inserts a key bit of mythology into their relationship, one that deepens both characters as well as the story I hope Johns will be telling for years to come.  I guess in hindsight it was clear that he wasn’t going to stick around THE FLASH with Barry Allen for too long, because that’s not something he did on that book (but definitely something he did in FLASHPOINT).  When he starts to shape an entire world that’s when you know he’s really invested, and that’s something he’s started to really get into here.  Here is an issue any self-respecting fan of superhero comics ought to read, because it’ll be important later.

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #5 (Marvel)

This should be another of those moments, but owing to the length of the event book, the Phoenix choosing its new host becomes a little convoluted, leaving Hope behind and entering into a few of the X-Men, who are still contractually obligated to be diametrically opposed to the Avengers.  On the other hand, Matt Fraction does a good job writing Iron Man as he appears in the movies, so that’s something right there, right?

BEFORE WATCHMEN: MINUTEMEN #1 (DC)

The big controversy here is that someone other than Alan Moore, and without his consent, is playing in the Watchmen sandbox.  This is being viewed as a violation of creator rights, mostly because everyone really loves WATCHMEN (but not the movie, which I always found odd, because the movie rocks).  MINUTEMEN is the first of several mini-series, and is handled by nostalgia-rich Darwyn Cooke.  It concerns the first generation of heroes envisioned by Moore, essentially the golden age, the birth of superheroes, and narrated by Hollis Mason, the original Night-Owl and author of the fictional UNDER THE HOOD autobiography that served to give the original story its first measure of authenticity, the quality that everyone dances around when speaking about WATCHMEN.  At heart, the story of the Watchmen is about weaving a self-contained world where everything makes sense, even the bits that get swept under the rug, and so it’s about perspective.  It’s always seemed odd to me that fans of WATCHMEN seem to utterly lack perspective, including Moore himself, a man so steeped in his own favorite memories that he barely seems to exist in the present.  Cooke is very much like that, but like his art style, he’s far more whimsical about it.  Perhaps it’s because he exists to play in not just other people’s sandboxes but their memories as well, that he serves as the perfect introduction to the BEFORE WATCHMEN project, which seeks to expand the narrative back to the characters and not just their story, because as Moore so cleverly demonstrated in the first place, without them the story couldn’t exist.  He already took the liberty of modifying the creations of others to reach that point in the first place.  Now we get to see how strong his own creations were.

EARTH 2 #2 (DC)

Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Mart Nodell, creator of Alan Scott.  He was a gracious man who didn’t mind signing comics that featured Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner, even though they had nothing to do with his Green Lantern.  I’m thinking he would have been fine with a little reinvention of his own character.  You may have heard by now that James Robinson made Green Lantern gay.  This is no surprise on the part of Robinson, who’s incorporated gay characters in his other comics, and was made as an official press release only days before this issue was published, just to allay, or at least moderate, the reaction.  The whole EARTH 2 series is about redefining a whole generation of superheroes, some of the oldest in comics, by ironically making them once again the successors of Superman and Batman.  Robinson has handled it beautifully so far, with the second issue better than the first, with more time to explore his brave new world.  The character on the cover is Jay Garrick, the original Flash, now endowed with the powers of Mercury but an inexperienced hothead (like a certain Bart Allen!), and it’s not until the third issue that Alan Scott is supposed to steal the spotlight.  He’s already been cast as a key figure in the narrative, shaping the public reaction to the aftermath of a parallel version of what happened in the first handful of JUSTICE LEAGUE issues, where events turned tragic and created a bleak (brave?) new world with awesome consequences.  So he also happens to be gay.  Some observers are saying it’s convenient, that he’s an alternate version in his own pocket world, but I don’t think Robinson ever had the media in mind when he made his decision.  Oh, well, it’s just that much easier to ignore if that’s easier for you.  Except you’ll be missing out on a great read.

THE SUMMER OF SPIDER-MAN/ WOLVERINE: SABRETOOTH REBORN (Marvel)

This is another of those free preview flipbooks, showcasing a bunch of upcoming Spider-Man stories as well as the latest from Jeph Loeb.  The Spidey previews are a little awkward.  First there’s something from Dan Slott’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN that involves the Lizard but has no relation to the upcoming movie.  It paints a pretty generic portrait of the Lizard and leaves anything human out of the picture.  Is that really the point of the character?  Then there’s SPIDER-MEN, from Brian Michael Bendis, a crossover between the regular wallcrawler and is Ultimate doppelganger, who happens to be Miles Morales these days.  The only problem is this excerpt is generic Peter Parker bemoaning his life, and only begins to suggest what will actually happen in the book.  This goes on for pages.  Finally there’s AVENGING SPIDER-MAN that’s supposed to sell you on the new, female Captain Marvel, but ends up doing a far better job for a character who doesn’t even technically have a name yet.  Get that girl her own book!  On the other side, Loeb and artist Simone Bianchi talk about their new Sabretooth project (they previously collaborated on WOLVERINE: EVOLUTION).  I wish Loeb hadn’t gotten so skittish about working with Tim Sale, but it seems these Wolverine tales are in that same basic tradition, character-rich stories that are probably worth checking out, even though they’re on the fringe of continuity.

WASTELAND #38 (Oni)

At this point Justin Greenwood has nicely settled in as the new artist of the book, and Antony Johnston is free to dive back into the mythology of the story, finally explaining the deal with Gerr, the assassin sent by Lord Founder Marcus of Newbegin to dispatch Michael and Abi, but only after they find A-Ree-Yass-I, fabled oasis of the Big Wet, the apocalypse that led to our little wasteland.  The bigger news is that next issue we may actually learn more about Marcus, Michael, and Abi, who share superhuman abilities, including the inability to age, that has kept them youthful for some hundred years.  But that’s next issue.  This issue finally provides closure to at least one long-standing arc in the series: Gerr has loomed as a threat over Michael and Abi for some twenty issues now (ever since BOOK 3: BLACK STEEL IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS, to be precise).  This is what THE WALKING DEAD should be like.   

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.