Nameless # 2 & 3 (Image)

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Chris Burnham

The thing that Chris Burnham brings out in Grant Morrison (which I will not demonstrate with an image) is the ability to cut loose.

The Morrison who exists in most of the material from JLA onward is completely safe for mainstream audiences, but the Morrison from a lot of his previous material (and the later The Filth) is kind of anything but.

For instance, the last page in the third issue of Nameless features a mutilated male corpse.  Notably, the nude corpse is missing one very significant piece of its anatomy.  And in a more general sense, Nameless also features Morrison's well-known interest in black magic, exhibited through grotesque imagery.

Burnham did this kind of work, to a lesser degree, in Morrison's Batman Incorporated, too, so there was every reason to expect stuff like this in Nameless.  I mean, why else bring this particular artist into another project, right?  Morrison has plenty of other well-known collaborators.  You bring along the one most suitable to the project.

Otherwise, Nameless, as the family-friendly image I've included suggests, is more or less like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Prometheus, Armageddon, a space adventure with a team of astronauts looking to solve what is essentially a simple problem: go in, get out.  Except there are always complications.  Above and beyond the problems the main character literally known as Nameless represents for working colleagues who understand all the occult matters as much as the typical reader will, this is very much a story that slowly unfolds its mysteries.

I get what Morrison is doing here.  But I'm probably not, all considered, the target audience.  Hey, as much as I enjoy reading Grant Morrison, these things can happen.

The Multiversity: Ultra Comics

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Doug Mahnke

Honestly, the only thing you need to know about this particular edition of The Multiversity is that Grant Morrison is addressing his well-know proclivity for breaking the fourth wall.  This is the full-on meta issue.

At one point, he has some social media comments embedded:

"Same Old, Same Old Pretentious SYMBOLISM."

"Yet ANOTHER comic-about-comics treatise retreading the SAME tired themes."

"How about a simple adventure story for once?"

As far as the last comment goes, certainly Thunderworld would fit that one, or even Mastermen (the Evil Superman version of Crisis On Infinite Earths), or even Society of Super-Heroes (so, about half of The Multiversity, really).  But because this is Grant Morrison; everyone expects this from him.

Structurally it tries to be clever but isn't really, and probably that's intentional, because Pax Americana was also intentionally clever (on several levels) and quite successfully so.

It's slightly disappointing, though, insofar as for the first handful of pages, Morrison succeeds in tricking the reader into having a more interactive relationship with the story than a typical comic will (read: any comic not written by Grant Morrison), remarking how characters think in the voice of the reader, or a correct estimation of when the reader is likely to prepare turning the page, or of course the matter of turning the page at all.  (These techniques are spread throughout the issue, but the heaviest concentration comes early.)

But then it just becomes a story.  I would have tried a little harder to make the whole experience cyclical, personally, given that the issue starts out with the main character reporting that he's actually come back from the end of the story.  How does that solve things?  Well, obviously, comics are a fairly easy medium to experience again, reaching the end of the issue and then starting over again.  Some can be read in a matter of minutes, and some readers will reread several times in one sitting.

Come to think of it, that's exactly what Grayson: Futures End did.  So that would've been nice to see here as well.  At least we have the art of Doug Mahnke to keep us company.

Maybe the whole point really is Morrison goosing readers.  The joke is that there really isn't a joke this time.

Mister X: Razed #2 (Dark Horse)

writer/artist: Dean Motter

Thanks in large part to Dark Horse's extraordinary commitment in recent years, Mister X is finally starting to get some recognition.  Yeah, it only took three decades...

But Dean Motter is approaching the character exactly the same as he always has: that same mysterious insomniac obsessed with navigating a city he helped create, one corrupt to the very core, having apparently been designed to wreak havoc on the psyche.

Motter's vision has turned out to be a criticism of the modern urban landscape.  At times he's focused on what we used to think the future would look like (what he calls retrofuturism), but in truth Motter has a distinctly pulp perspective, one he's shared with Frank Miller all along.

Where Miller has tended toward a more primal approach, Motter prefers an oblique one.  Where they distinctly merge is in storytelling like the page I included, which you can also find in Miller's Dark Knight Returns.  This is a portrait of the whole city.  Mister X is most often a bogeyman, how Tim Burton envisioned the Dark Knight in Batman, which was much more like Miller's vision than anything that had been seen in comics or television to that date.  Miller's creative vision is best-known from his Sin City comics and the resulting films co-directed by Robert Rodriguez, who's good friends with Quentin Tarantino, who of course made Pulp Fiction.  Motter's storytelling is kind of like what happens in a Tarantino film when there isn't blood involved.  Everyone's very self-absorbed, and they don't notice what's happening around them.  Which is exactly what Motter's villains are always counting on.  When they aren't pulling off a sensational act like making a building disappear.

But more on that next issue!

G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes, Agent of Cobra #3 (IDW)

writer: Mike Costa

artist: Paolo Villanelli

When The Cobra Files ended in 2013 it seemed like the last time Mike Costa would be involved in the further adventures of G.I. Joe.  Even someone like me, a hopelessly devoted fan, had forgotten that there were still loose ends to tie up.

This issue involves Billy, the late Cobra Commander's son.  Billy was a character previously featured in Larry Hama's comics, but Costa's stories are unrelated.  In this continuity, Cobra Commander was famously assassinated, and Billy is very much an innocent still trying to disentangle himself from the life his father led.

Whether or not he thinks Ronin is helping him do that might be open to interpretation, but that's what this issue's all about.  Ronin was another of Costa's signature characters in the older stories, and it's great seeing her again, too.  You might be wondering where Snake Eyes, the eponymous character, is in all of this, and to this I say: the dude is mute.  His story is bound to be told from someone else's perspective.  And because this is Mike Costa doing his Mike Costa best, there are a lot of moving parts around him.  Conveniently, continuing stories that really have nothing to do with Snake Eyes.

Although, who knows?  By the time he's done, Costa might have us thinking differently about Snake Eyes, too.  That tends to happen when Mike Costa's writing G.I. Joe...

Earth 2: World's End #26 (DC)

writer: Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson, Cullen Bunn

artist: many, many artists

This finale to Earth 2: World's End, and in fact Earth 2 itself (to be relaunched as Earth 2: Society, and thereby finally making the Justice Society thing official) demonstrates in dramatic fashion what happens when Darkseid is successful in defeating humanity.

And I still don't get it, because anytime I've heard someone talk about this particular weekly it's been negative.  Maybe it's because I didn't read it weekly, and I stopped reading Earth 2 monthly a while back, and so my impressions would necessarily be different from someone who read along the whole way, I don't know.  But, and certainly in this last issue, I think World's End has been quite the example of weekly event book, arguably the best out of the three just concluded at DC (the others being, of course, Batman: Eternal and The New 52: Futures End).

Maybe it's been an issue about trying to keep all the characters straight, or wanting to see one or another have more of a focus.  Well, this one's all about Alan Scott, the character who made the earliest and most sensational impact in Earth 2 when it was revealed this version is gay.  And now he's also the most powerful superhero in this reality, having merged all the avatars into himself and once again redefined what it means to be Green Lantern (it perhaps needs reminding that he was in fact the original Green Lantern, too).

Earth 2 was always set in a reality where Darkseid won.  It was an alternate version of how the New 52 Justice League began.  And now that Darkseid is scheduled to at last return to Justice League, it's only fitting that he has at last finished what he started elsewhere.  Shouldn't there be at least one story where the ultimate villain really and truly wins?  Where else but in a comic book landscape where something like that can actually happen?

In the spotlight to a lesser degree is Earth 2's Flash, who like Alan Scott is a version of the original, although in Jay Garrick's case the link is much more tenuous.  For his part in the issue, Jay has to make the heartrending decision to abandon his mother at the end of the world.

There are a bunch of other characters who appear, but the ending closes out the story and offers a segue to Convergence.  Yes, this was the one that led directly to DC's big event.  So maybe, at some point, people will realize they should have been paying attention.  Or they'll stop by in the trades...

Descender #2 (Image)

writer: Jeff Lemire

artist: Dustin Nguyen

I think I mentioned this in my review of the first issue, but it bears repeating: Descender reminds me of A.I. Artificial Intelligence.  Less Haley Joel Osment, alas.  But Jeff Lemire has got a very good thing going.

A major element of this particular issue is a series of memories Tim (our boy robot) has concerning his early years, including being activated and then joining his human family.  But that's in the past.  In the present, a repressive government has declared war against technology, including a Blade Runner-esque campaign against robots like Tim.

Against even little boy robots?  Lemire and artist Dustin Nguyen have done an excellent job of portraying Tim's innocence, his yearning to be "a real boy."  Except this Pinocchio comes equipped with a deadly plasma bolt!  And he's not afraid to use it.

The memory element turns out to be tied into how the issue ends, a real cliffhanger moment that's a bit shocking to see come so early in the story (you can maybe more or less guess what that is at this point).  As if I wasn't going to be reading more of this comic anyway, but it'll certainly be interesting to see what happens next.

Convergence: Superman #1 (DC)

writer: Dan Jurgens

artist: Lee Weeks

Arguably the comic every '90s Superman fan wanted to read, the logical progression from the death to the wedding.  And baby makes three.  This is how Lois & Clark ended, too, that threshold that has never been crossed.  Until now.

And it only figures that Dan Jurgens is the writer.  Joining him is his collaborator from Superman: Futures End #1, Lee Weeks, and they make a great combination once again.  Weeks brings out the dramatic side of Jurgens in a way Jurgens himself hasn't been able to since Superman #75 (but really, who was ever going to be able to top that, much less match it?).

For me personally, Weeks is also the Stuart Immonen connection, since there's no artist Weeks compares to from that time other than Immonen, who has been at Marvel ever since someone decided he wasn't needed in Superman comics anymore.  (Still a terrible shame I hope to one day see corrected.  Never-ending battle, right?).  (It was great to hear he will soon be doing Star Wars, which is a project truly worth his talents.)

This issue also features the Flashpoint Superman, which was a hidden treasure of that event, a clever variation that saw Kal-El stuck in the Roswell position, kept hidden by the government.

The recap at the back of the issue runs through a list of events including: the wedding, the start of Grant Morrison's JLA, Electric Superman, Our Worlds At War, Infinite Crisis, and the Geoff Johns Brainiac story (appropriate for Convergence) plus the New Krypton arc.  I think fans might have been happy to see just the '90s era recapped.  Or at least this fan.  Those remain some of my favorite comics...