Five Comics Worth Reading - September 2011

THE BOYS: BUTCHER, BAKER, CANDLESTICKMAKER
There were points in issue #1 and the first part of issue #2 where I thought this might be the first installment of The Boys/its various spinoffs I might not really get into, not because it wasn’t any good, but because it seemed like it was set up largely to be a war story, and while Garth Ennis writes those well and Darick Robertson can draw anything, war stories just generally aren’t my jam. However, the war portions, while critical, are not the whole thing, and as noted, they’re done quite well so they contribute nicely to the bigger picture. This is really the origin story of Billy Butcher, an intriguing character in the classic Ennis mold who seems to walk the line between being an oddly endearing antihero and a straight up jerk in pretty much every one of his appearances. This story focuses on the roots of why Billy is the way he is, particularly on his relationship with his father and discovery of being able to lose himself in violence, but it doesn’t do so in a “this excuses his actions” way; it’s very shades of grey in presenting the potential motivators for Billy’s personality, but leaving it up to you to decide whether he was shaped against his will by external circumstances or just uses those as a cop out. It’s Ennis doing a great combination of action with psycho-analysis—which makes for the best Boys story—and Robertson returning to full art duties, where I have missed him sorely as he’s one of my all-time favorites. Very much looking forward to the third issue, where Billy’s slated to be “saved” by the love of a wife we know from The Boys he eventually loses.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & BUCKY
It’s kinda crazy to think that a decade ago Bucky was more or less a cipher, a long-forgotten Golden Age sidekick stereotype more useful to stories in death than in life, given the depth Ed Brubaker has managed to give him since he rolled the dice and brought him back in 2004 (Roger Stern, among others, got some great stories in as well). During his comeback tour, Bucky Barnes went from grinning boy mascot to a character possessed of a pronounced dark side born from growing up literally in the midst of war but also a stubborn heroic spirit that propelled him forward through his trials and made him inspirational as well as easy to root for. Now Brubaker and co-writer Marc Andreyko are taking the time to fill in the gaps of Bucky’s formative years, showing where both the tortured soul and grim resolve to carry on came from in this series. The first two issues have been dynamite, presenting a charismatic and boisterous young kid who makes you chuckle only pages before he’s forced to plunge a knife through a man’s throat for the greater good. Though ostensibly headlining the title as well, Captain America fits better as the co-star here, reversing the traditional dynamic, acting as a concerned father figure who warns his charge about the tough times to come as well as the player coach reminding why these things must be done. Chris Samnee’s art is just terrific, his versatility impressive as ever and used to full effect by his collaborators. The juxtaposition of Samnee’s go-lucky depiction of Steve and Bucky goofing off while watching actors portray them in propaganda films against his wrenching actions scenes give both greater weight. Everybody working on this title seems to recognize they’re sitting on a wealth of potential and their determination to make it count shines through.

THE PUNISHER
Frank Castle can be a tough nut to crack when it comes to casting him in an ongoing series. He’s got a great premise, but as has been noted time and again, a vigilante who kills everybody he comes up against can be hard to sustain over lengthy period and not fall into the trap of telling the same story over and over. The best writers can find ways to rise to the challenge and utilize the Punisher’s strengths as a character while writing around the barriers to longevity. Garth Ennis veered far away from the idea of a super hero universe and got nearly a decade out of writing the stories he wanted to tell with Frank as the anchor. Most recently, Rick Remender went 180, dumping Frank in the midst of the Marvel Universe and playing the contrast, then going in a totally unexpectedly delightful direction by turning him into a Frankenstein monster. From the first three issues of his new series, I’m intrigued by Greg Rucka’s approach of using The Punisher as almost a supporting character in his own story, focusing on the world around him and how it’s affected by this gun-toting boogeyman and introducing a strong supporting cast to speak for him (Frank didn’t speak at all through #3). It’s the idea of Batman-as-urban legend taken a step further and utilizes Rucka’s potent skills writing straight crime drama while holding his familiarity with super hero comics in reserve for when it’s needed. Marco Checchetto brings a welcome fresh approach to the book that sets it apart from past Punisher stories, his European style creating an eerie sort of urban ghost story that fits the elusive, larger-than-life nature of the protagonist; he also brings a beauty to the violence that haunts you.

STORMWATCH
On Captain Britain and MI: 13, Paul Cornell demonstrated tremendous skill when it came to taking the fringe elements of a shared universe and using them to world build a fascinating place just off to the side of the main action where characters not always given the chance to shine got spotlight and characterization while also being able to provide a compelling side commentary to a larger narrative. In this regard, Stormwatch is the perfect comic for Cornell, as he gets to integrate cherry-picked elements of Wildstorm’s remains into the new DC status quo, pull in players like Martian Manhunter to act as a bridge, and then move the camera around as he creates a framework exploration of the emerging landscape. In the first issue, we get introduced to the latest incarnation of Stormwatch, mostly helmed by Authority alums such as Jack Hawksmoor and The Engineer, but also joined by the aforementioned J’onn J’onzz as well as new Cornell creations (I believe) like Projectionist and Harry Tanner. All of these characters plus would-be recruit Apollo and late-coming Midnighter gets a nice moment to show off their powers, something that perhaps seems trivial but is crucial in first issues, especially one like this where a good deal of the audience may be unfamiliar with these folks. The positioning of Stormwatch as an alternative to the Justice League and the threads laid down here in regards to there being a bigger picture guys like Superman might not be privy to made me glad I picked this up and eager to see more. Cornell made the most out of the real estate he had to work with, really packing this debut; he seems to have found a nice sweet spot creatively.

ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES
There are probably few assignments in comics more simultaneously daunting right now than The Ultimates. It’s not like being asked to write an icon like Superman or Spider-Man where there have been decades of history and plenty of subpar runs and it’s not like creating your own stuff from scratch where you create the expectations; despite being around nearly a decade now, Ultimates is still mostly remembered for a handful of comics that set the tone for the last 10 years of comics and a lot of the stuff you’re seeing in the blockbuster movies hitting the screen each summer. What I like about Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s first issue of their Ultimates book is that it pays homage to the original stuff but strikes a different tone to let you know that the story has progressed and everything that’s taken place since the end of Ultimates 2 counted and weighs on this cast. The best example I can think of is how Nick Fury still possesses the scowl and swagger Mark Millar initially instilled in him, seeming up to literally any challenge, but as the problems mount, he blinks ever so slightly, until by the issue’s close he’s almost paralyzed by indecision; this is still the guy who took down an alien invasion, but he also saw a teenage hero die on his watch, and he has been affected. Likewise, Iron Man is still the puffed up spin on his traditional template, but he too shows human moments of weakness, like when he insists his new butler answer to Jarvis even though it’s not his name. The Ultimates has always been a popcorn flick with balls-to-the-wall action and huge heroes who have a quip in response to any sign of danger; Hickman’s Ultimates are those same people with the weight of the world and tremendous personal loss on their shoulders and I’m really taken in by getting this three-dimensional examination of where they’re at now. And Esad Ribic’s art is just gorgeous; it always is, but the care he takes here with not just the tech or the fighting but just Thor’s glaring face is remarkably beautiful. Simply put: Nobody today does it like Ribic and Dean White. Heck, I love the way Clayton Cowles letters the word balloons and how the story title is laid out. This is a very good comic. Will it pave the way for the next decade? I’m looking forward to finding out.

Five Comics Worth Reading - April 2010

Every now and again I read a comic and am just like “Wow, this book is sick,” but don’t always have more than a few sentences to say about it, let alone a whole post. To that end, with no ambitions whatsoever of any sort of regular schedule, I use this recurring feature babble about books I’m really digging.

Books like these.

THE BOYS
From Preacher to Hitman to Punisher, Garth Ennis does his best work when he uses over-the-top violence, gore, and crude trappings to mask the fact that he’s actually telling a story with a lot of heart. Yeah, his stuff is funny and gross and often ridiculous, but his characters are some of the most sincere you’ll find and the guy can write dialogue that will well up your eyes when he wants to.

Back when The Boys first started, I thought it might be Ennis taking a break from the serious stuff to go full-bore in surface mode, telling the nastiest super hero parody he could, and truth be told I would have been ok with that; it was still a good monthly laugh and Darick Robertson’s art is just gorgeous. But over time after some growing pains, The Boys has revealed itself as being—surprise surprise—a book with a lot of heart about characters with tremendous depth and an intriguing world in which everybody is playing everybody…with a healthy dose of super-powered sex jokes padding the panels.

The recent run of one-off “origin” issues for the oft-neglected characters of Mother’s Milk, The Frenchman and The Female was great, ballsy stuff, with Ennis going to the well and coming up with back-stories rooted in classic tropes yet spinning in entirely new directions. The latest arc, in which Butcher has come to suspect something’s up with Hughie—for my money one of comics’ most likable characters with a fantastically Ennis romance—and sends him to do recon on a socially-stunted Legion of Super-Heroes pastiche is shaping up to be more of the goodness.

And seriously: Darick Robertson is amazing.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY
Rickey and I have talked up House of Mystery quite a bit in private over the past couple years, though I’m not sure how often we’ve plugged it here on the blog—well, better late than never I suppose.

It’s a really cool book for many reasons, not the least of which is that it pays off on the potential for a format I and many of my fellows have often seen in an underexploited genre, that being the anthology book. No, it’s not a traditional multi-story anthology and there’s a pretty heady main plot threading through the series, but the idea that every month you can get a cool short horror-tinged story by the likes of Sam Kieth or Farel Dalrymple (to name a couple recent contributors) is just a neat and special thing. The conceit of these stories coming out of the book’s set-up wherein patrons at the bar around which it’s centered must pay their tab in tales is also quite an ingenious one if I do say so (I do).

But the short story icing aside, Matt Sturges has really weaved a delicious cake of—wait for it—mystery in the main narrative. The recent direction semi-change of rotation in and out of certain cast members really shook things up in the right way, as the old guard are not forgotten nor are their unanswered questions, but we’ve also got new faces and conundrums creeping up, headed up by heroine fig’s creepy and possibly homicidal brother Strawberry. It’s a smart book as you’d expect from its pedigree, but certainly not too dense for any old joe to dive right in.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Like many others, I was a bit concerned when Geoff Johns ended his landmark run on JSA and fearful that whoever took over would not be able to nail that elusive formula that makes a book centered around 70-year old characters and certainly lacking a certain sexiness still work in this age of super hero comics. I think it took Bill Willingham awhile to ease his way in, but he seems to be hitting on the right cylinders now.

Halving the book’s cast was a good move, since fifty percent of the JSA is still bigger than pretty much any other team excepting the Legion, and Willingham wisely assembled a team consisting primarily of characters whose voices he can nail. Whether it’s the stoicism of Alan Scott, the gruffness of Wildcat, the perkiness of Liberty Belle or that in-over-my-head terror Doctor Fate exudes, Willingham knows his players and their quirks and how the group dynamic should work.

The story arc with Mordru was a nice bit of fun, and now the current multi-parter in which the team is fighting across two eras to prevent new age Nazis from taking over the world is shaping up as quite the sizable epic. The peril feels quite real and the action is well-choreographed. With the focus more on Mister Terrific with a dash of folks like Doctor Mid-Nite and Lightning thrown in, Willingham is also moving the camera around nicely, which is a necessity on a book like this.

Jesus Merino has come into his own as well, still clearly influenced by his years of inking Carlos Pacheco but not shackled by it; he draws real pretty.

WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
When Jason Aaron is on his game with Wolverine, I’m not sure I’ve seen more than one or two other writers who make the character more enjoyable to follow.

I was re-reading the recent standalone issue about Logan’s love life a few nights ago and found myself smirking with every page at how fun Aaron makes this guy who has been a perennially put-upon and tortured character for so long and so often. Yeah, the angst is certainly still there in Weapon X, but this Wolverine is more a guy with some crazy war stories to tell but whose charisma and wit draws you to him, as opposed to the depressing guy wallowing in the corner of the bar.

Aaron also helps his case by never taking Wolverine too seriously, or letting the character do so either. Self-conscious sequences of the writer poking fun at how his charge seems to be a dozen places at once or scenes where Logan is getting a sex talk from Jubilee and especially Wolvie asking to hold Luke Cage and Jessica Jones’ baby make the crazy ass battle sequences where this guy is tearing people apart with his claws so much more effective via contrast.

But the current arc with an army of Deathloks coming back from the future to hunt down a master list of super heroes so they can rule their own time period Terminator style is just a whole other step beyond.

It’s hard to really encapsulate what makes this story so darn fantastic, but it illustrates that Jason Aaron is perhaps without peer when it comes to visualizing the craziest big picture concepts ever and then actually following through with them. He did it on Ghost Rider with stuff like Johnny Blaze storming the gates of heaven on a motorcycle and challenging the baddest angel in the land an issue or two after fighting a possessed steam shovel and he does it here with an army of cyborg killing machines coming back in time to kill people we’ve never heard of because their kid will grow up to be a legendary hero. The time jumps, the continuity winks, and the way he handles new and old characters just so darn well in the midst of unparalleled craziness is just a masterful thing and a joy to see unfold.

X-FACTOR FOREVER
As somebody who never had any emotional attachment to Louise Simonson’s run on X-Factor from when I was like eight and no particular fondness for the original X-Men outside of a tough-to-quantify fandom for Iceman, this was the last book I was expecting to get into.

But it’s really a good read.

My hat is off (or it would be if I were wearing one) to Ms. Simonson for being able to analyze her work of two decades ago and re-imagine it for a modern day audience without it feeling stagnant or at the other extreme dragging it kicking and screaming on a forced migration into the 21st century just by sticking iPods in the characters’ hands. She has instead pulled off perfectly the act of balancing nostalgia with a knowing awareness of how storytelling conventions have evolved and created a comic that reads like a fun super hero book from a simpler time without coming off stale or pedantic; this I imagine can’t be an easy thing to do.

As an X-Men junkie, I love the feel of the story wherein Apocalypse has grand designs involving destiny and whatnot we’re only getting the tip of, but I’d imagine somebody picking the book up cold could also just appreciate the idea of characters with neat costumes and cool powers fighting a giant robot across New York City. The book has thus far succeeded in both servicing those of us looking for a trip back to the elaborate X-Men mythos of yesteryear while also being new reader-friendly.

Simonson also just writes a great Apocalypse, and her re-imagining his full history in the back-up is a great bonus.

Dan Panosian really brought his A-game as well, and has clearly worked to keep growing his craft from his Image days back in the 90’s. His design skill for the aforementioned costumes is spot-on and the guy can do a fight scene like wow.

Essentials Extra: New Warriors Must Reads Pt. 2

Last time, I covered some of the most essential reading from Fabian Nicieza’s first 25 issues on New Warriors. This go-around, let’s take a look at the latter half of that run, the bulk of which was illustrated by Darick Robertson, who remembers those days so fondly that he did not think me a psycho fan when I was working at Wizard and practically assaulted him at a bar in L.A. expressing my fandom and later did a very nice Nova sketch for me.

(Again, in a perfect world I really do recommend reading all of New Warriors from start to finish, but these are just a few of the stories that stand out for me)

“The Next Step” (New Warriors #26)
In Robertson’s very first issue, he’s clearly still in his growing stages as an artist, but Nicieza gives him a doozy to start with, as it’s the epilogue to “Nothing But the Truth” as well as a bon voyage for Marvel Boy, who has been convicted of manslaughter and is headed to prison. It’s a real tug at the heartstrings, as Firestar, Namorita and Nova attempt to spring their teammate en route to The Vault, and he ends up surprising them with his response. My favorite part of the issue is the emotional farewell between Marvel Boy and Firestar, as well as his incredibly mature and beautifully-expressed reassurance of her in regards to taking a major step in their relationship for the wrong reasons. While I was more of a Nova-Namorita fanboy when it came to Warriors couples (for obvious reasons if you know me), I always have and still and a soft spot for the “aw shucks” feel good nature of the Vance-Angel romance, and this issue reminds me why.

“Forces of Darkness, Forces of Light” (New Warriors #32-34, New Warriors Annual #3)
There’s definitely a different feel to this arc than most of the others on this list as it’s probably the only time Nicieza really deviated from putting the Warriors and their personal conflicts front and center, instead placing them at the center of a big ol’ action epic guest-starring half the Marvel Universe. Because of that feeling of separation for the overarching New Warriors saga, I’d never place “Forces of Darkness, Forces of Light” at the very top of my must-reads, but at the same time it certainly warrants some place as it’s cool to see Spider-Man, the Avengers, etc. taking their cue from the Warriors, because the idea of a villain who can turn the heroes into bad guys by flooding them with darkness with the visual expression being that they turn charcoal is one of those great high concepts that appeals to your inner kid ala evil twins, and because Robertson starts to come into his own on this one.

“Poison Memories” (New Warriors #37-38, Night Thrasher #1)
Despite having an interesting twist on the Shazam concept being an inner city kid in an adult hero’s body, Rage was mostly a blank slate during his tenures with the Avengers as well as the New Warriors, but in this story, Nicieza really cracked him open and found the unique character within the shell. It was a different kind of conflict for the Warriors from the start and yet very fitting with the world they existed in, as they’re targeted not by a true super villain, but by a street gang whose leader actually did his homework, seducing Namorita—the only Warrior with a publicly known identity—in a nightclub and then stealing her address book to learn her teammates’ IDs and target their loved ones. While most of the team surrenders to Kimeiko Ashu and his Poison Memories lest Nova’s brother or Speedball’s father be harmed, Rage lashes out following the murder of his grandmother, living up to his name. Night Thrasher’s return to the team to save them from Ashu, who began as his enemy, is dramatic, but nowhere near as tense as when Rage has the villain in a chokehold and callously snaps his neck over his allies’ pleas not to. Also, once again, Robertson takes his work to the next level, aided by a seemingly renewed energy as well from Larry Mahlstedt on inks and Joe Rosas on colors.

“Family Viewing” (New Warriors #39)
The epilogue to the Poison Memories saga deserves its own entry as it’s a “downtime” issue where Nicieza really opens things up and gives readers their money’s worth. You’ve got Nova’s brother, who just lost his pinky finger two issues back, giving an awesome pep talk to his moping super hero sibling about how he’ll lose all four limbs if it means his bro saves the planet again. You’ve got a nice moment where Firestar refuses to leave the bedside of her comatose father and leaves Marvel Boy dangling on the other line of the payphone when he wakes up. You’ve got Rage trying to take responsibility for his actions by turning himself in to the authorities and Night Thrasher making it clear he answers to a harsher jury: him. And of course, you have the Nova-Namorita hook-up that took 39 issues, but was well worth it.

“Time and Time Again” (New Warriors #47-50, Night Thrasher #11-12, Nova #6-7)
The first (and last) real crossover between the suddenly burgeoning New Warriors family of titles that emerged at the height of 90’s excess was somewhat hit or miss by its very nature. The Sphinx scattered the team throughout time, meaning you got eight different stories by eight different artists (all written by Nicieza) as well as a ninth set in the present where Warriors mascot Hindsight Lad, the former female Sphinx and Night Thrasher’s half-brother Bandit attempt to organize a new team to rescue the originals; some of the stories were good, some not so much, some totally forgettable (I don’t even remember what happened with Rage and know that Namorita was in ancient Atlantis while Firestar was in the Salem Witch Trials, but couldn’t tell you much more than that). Personally, I liked Nova’s trip to a parallel world where his brother got his powers, Justice traveling to his abusive father’s childhood and learning that he was a repressed homosexual, and Silhouette being put in the “would you kill baby Hitler?” position with her evil grandmother, Tai. Regardless, it’s Robertson’s final issue as well as Nicieza’s last sweeping epic, and both go all out in the landmark, over-sized fiftieth issue which features some of the most vibrant art I’ve seen to this day, incredible wall-to-wall Warriors vs Sphinx action, and appropriately touching resolution to the whole thing.

“Another Think Coming” (New Warriors #51)
Though he’d hand on a couple issues longer, to me the coda to “Time and Time Again” was really Fabian Nicieza’s well-earned farewell to New Warriors, and a perfect note to end on. He brings back one of the Warriors’ very first villains, The Mad Thinker, not to battle our heroes, but to remind them of the purpose they seemed to have misplaced and galvanize them to remain as a team. For Nicieza, it’s a chance to sum up for us what those first 50 issues were all about as well as demonstrate how much these characters have grown since they got together. It’s got some neat art by Richard Pace (who only stuck around about four issues and I have not really seen since, which is a shame) and puts a nice cherry on top of Fabian Nicieza’s New Warriors sundae.