Savage Sword of Conan Volume 8! I didn’t read it yet — I’ll do that tomorrow night — but I strongly suspect it’ll be the best thing I read this week. Nostalgia weighs heavily in that assessment, but the house ads Dark Horse is running in October’s comics for the new, Roy Thomas-scripted Conan: The Road of Kings are also a factor. Anticipation of forthcoming, heretofore unseen Conan comics is like catnip to me.
Let’s suppose you’re not like me — 6′6″, 240lbs of muscle, a fan of both opera and the gentle art of making enemies — what comics might you be interested in this week that don’t involve a certain Cimmerian and are not reprint collections? I bought quite a few of ‘em, so let’s discuss a couple. The couple does not include Baltimore #3 and Thor: For Asgard #3 because they’re both pretty good but I’ve dissected them in detail a few times now and there’s not much to say without revealing key plot elements.
Batman Odyssey: I give up. I have no idea what’s going on anymore. Batman rips off Riddler’s face because Riddler’s actually some assassin in disguise, assassin shoots kid, Batman delivers one of the most florid, hyperbolic speeches in the history of comic books while beating assassin three-quarters of the way to death and then Talia shows up in a dress with a slit so high I can count her ribs. Neal Adams is a comic book legend and he remains a powerful penciler, but as a writer, boy, does he need an editor. I’m enjoying this book less with each installment.
I was also unmoved by Batman: Hidden Treasures. Mark Chiarello’s editor’s note at the front of the book explains that this is the “legendary” all-splash page Batman story Bernie Wrightson illustrated (I’d never heard of it, and picked it up for Wrightson’s work alone) but has never been published — until now. Wrightson remains a master of the form, but Ron Marz’s script is your typical O. Henry homage with Solomon Grundy as an extra bonus. It’s not even a good O. Henry homage; the twist is obvious from very early on in the story. The second feature is a Len Wein/Wrightson Swamp-Thing issue from 1973 featuring Batman, and it is a sterling example of how hamstrung modern writers are by their slavish adherence to modern comics’ “Batman is a psychopathic, grief-stricken vigilante lost in the darkness of his own haunted psyche” trope. Guh. Remember when he was a whip-smart detective? Yeah, good times; they’re here in the second half of this book, but rarely in any of the modern Bat titles.
If you’re not a fan of Metalocalypse, would you buy an issue of Dethklok? I love the show, but even I’m not sure a comic book version will work, despite show creators/writers Brendon Small and Jon Schnepp being involved. Jeremy Barlow scripts from a story by Small and Schnepp, and it *feels* a lot like an episode of the show, but the lack of a soundtrack makes it fall flat. Brendon Small’s use of incidental music, sound effects and legitimately heavy heavy metal — not to mention his amazing voice work — greatly enhances the cartoon, often in subtle ways. The comic book version just can’t duplicate that, and if you’re familiar with the show, the book comes across as low-key — and not just when it comes time for the song, although the lack of Small’s guitar shredding is most painfully evident then. There are a couple of good jokes in here, but it’s just too quiet — and a quiet Dethklok just isn’t as funny.
Lack of funny isn’t an issue for Scratch 9. Rob Worley and Jason Kruse’s kids’ comic about a cat — Scratch, natch — trying to find his way back to his loyal girl, Penelope, while avoiding the evil Dr. Schrodinger is chockfull of silly jokes. Scratch, who is clearly not the smartest kitty in the litter, has developed the power to manifest incarnations of his earlier lives in times of stress. That means he gets to fight side-by-side with a mummy cat and a Shaolin monk cat — that’s awesome, particularly if you’re a cat person. Scratch is a good-natured dimbulb, and Kruse’s art is perfectly cartoony. If you’re tired of all the gloom and gritty in your comics but still crave action, check out Scratch 9.
But wait, there’s more! It borders on ludicrous hyperbole, but I’m going to say it anyway. If any of you are old enough to remember back to the very early 80s when Chris Claremont was hitting his stride on X-Men, you no doubt recall the exhilaration of reading each issue as it came out. The new X-Men were mysterious and different compared to established Marvel heroes, the villains were a surprise, the plots were compelling — there was a sense of newness to the book that set it apart from everything that was happening at the time. I’m not going to equate Freedom Fighters with Chris Claremont’s X-Men run, but I will say that reading issue 2 of Freedom Fighters reminded me of the feeling I used to get when my new issue of X-Men arrived in the mail. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have a misfit team of superheroes — Black Condor, the Ray, Phantom Lady, Firebrand, the Human Bomb and Uncle Sam — waging war against a quartet of immortal Native American shamans for 18 pages, and it is a wild, unpredictable and most importantly FUN ride.
Uncle Sam as a superhero has always tickled my fancy, and Palmiotti and Gray have crafted him as a moral and conscientious figure who is acutely aware of his dual nature as symbol and actual spirit of the country, and he talks like he’s an amalgamation of Henry Thoreau and Carl Sandburg. And then they have him go Kaiju Big Battle with the Renegade Shamans and I giggled like a maniac. If that’s not enough to convince you, consider this: A nameless supervillain who’s dressed like Alexander Hamilton’s younger brother has the (fictional) Vice President of the United States tied up in a chair and he lectures her on the moral turpitude of our country (HE’S RIGHT!) while he beats her with a walking stick topped with a golden eagle. Comic books are so awesome. I want to salute this book and buy it a beer. Freedom Fighters #2 is without a doubt the best thing I read this week.
-Paul
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
