Great Kirby’s Drawing Hand, what a haul this week. Books I love (King Conan!), books I’m not on speaking terms with at the moment (FF 2!), books I bought out of a sense of obligation (The Mighty Thor 1), books that made me roll my eyes when I saw the cover (Warlord of Mars!) and many other books besides. My final count was in double digits and could have been higher. Can I possibly keep these reviews brief enough that I cover them all? Nothing in the history of ever suggests that I can, but let’s give it a shot anyway. What else was I going to do tonight?
See You Next Wednesday Comics Edgar J. Penniesworth: The world’s richest hobo details his origin story in this one. I admit, I almost forgot about Edgar J., but reading this reminded me that Edgar’s original appearance marked the first melancholy story Mike Harvey did for his weekly mini comic experiment. This story is also permeated with a sense of loss and sadness — maybe it’s because I’m a mopey kinda guy, but I really like when Mike goes deep like this. I think the world is big enough for all kinds of comics, but it really is amazing that SYNW tries harder than most books to be all kinds of comics. Still one of my favorite reads every week.
Conan: Road of Kings 4: Roy Thomas’ return to Conan is really starting to pay dividends. He’s once again deftly blending classic REH elements (political dissident Murillo from “Rogues in the House is back with regicide on his mind) with new characters and settings to make something worthy of REH without being a pale imitation of REH. Another conspirator in the plot to kill a king is revealed, Conan undergoes some light torture, Gamesh the sword-handed assassin returns to make life difficult for Consey and there’s some other delights as well. Sadly, Mike Hawthorne’s art is not growing on me — in fact, I’m more and more against it with every issue. It’s too cartoony, too static and too bland to serve the script. The problem is exacerbated because King Conan came out this week also, and I had some great Conan images with which to compare.
King Conan 3: Tomas Giorello flat-out killed it in this issue. His depiction of the hell-plant, Yothga, with Pelias the Sorcerer trapped in its leafy embrace, is the stuff of nightmares — exactly as it should be. Tim Truman continues to adroitly adapt the Scarlet Citadel storyline, which requires a balance of horrible tension and secrets revealed at regular intervals to fully work, and work it does. I have the feeling a key character is being omitted from this telling, which niggles at my enjoyment a bit, but maybe she’ll show up next issue. Even without her presence in the story, this is a strong, thoroughly enjoyable adaptation. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have a Thomas/Truman writing team working with Giorello.
Planet of the Apes 1: I would have thought Tim Burton’s wretched adaptation of the original film would have killed any interest in a POTA property in any medium, but I underestimated the lingering appeal of Pierre Boules’ source material. Daryl Gregory sets this tale more than a millennia before Taylor (Charlton Heston) falls back to earth, a time when humans can still speak and live side-by-side with the apes, although humanity’s supremacy is clearly on the wane. It’s kind of a pre-apocalyptic sci-fi story in that sense, although since the Lawgiver ape is assassinated by a human with a machine gun on page two, you can expect that apocalypse to hit pretty soon. I like Carlos Magno’s art, but he has a tendency to make those ape faces a little too pretty in the human sense — I’d prefer more ape-looking apes. That’s a minor quibble, and I liked the book overall.
FF 2: Jonathan Hickman does a lot of good work here to repair my damaged relationship with this book. The Future Foundation sets out to heal Dr. Doom’s damaged brain, and this for some reason requires Doom to become a member of the team. Honestly, I don’t understand why that’s a requirement — it seems contrived. However, Hickman distracts us with some nice Sue/Ben dynamics and more great Spider-Man jokery/thinkery. Also, the payoff in this issue picks up a stitch dropped a few months ago, which is simultaneously satisfying and terrifying. I like continuity and I like surprises, and this one hits both points nicely.
The problem is, Amazing Spider-Man 659 outdoes it in all areas, using the same team and a whole lot more action, adventure, Silver Age continuity, a 30 Rock joke and zombie pirates — yeah, that doesn’t make this issue sound one-tenth as entertaining as it really is. I guess since FF is now Future Force, Dan Slott decided he has free rein to write the ultimate Fantastic Four issue with Spider-Man as a guest star. Nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned. The major difference between this and FF proper is one of tone; Slott keeps it lighthearted and action-packed, while Hickman opts for very serious and portentous. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either approach, but I will say that ASM is the sort of book you immediately want to share with a friend so you can both enjoy it — and I don’t feel that way about FF. Maybe in a few months, but not right now.
Superman/Batman 83 continues the Sorcerer Kings storyline that so captured my fancy last month. Cullen Bunn and Chriscross have to do some explaining in this issue as a matter of course, filling us in on how the world has changed because of its magic sun, what the Justice League has been up to, why they stole Superman from the past etc, etc. The expository issues are never my favorite ones in any arc, but Bunn uses it to explore an interesting facet of Superman’s personality, namely, his belief that he can fix anything because he’s Superman. This has always been the downfall of the character in my mind — there’s no drama in any set-up if you know there’s always someone right there to make it all better — but Bunn shows us that it can manufacture drama when someone uses that supreme confidence against him. Also, Aquaman shows up and he’s like, 300 years old — awesome. I can’t wait to read next issue, when everything gets wrapped up and Superman finally gets to swing that magic sword of his. (I really am simple, aren’t I?)
Xombi 2 is far from simple. I actually feel kinda lost, because I never read the original run of this book, so I’m still playing catch-up, trying to figure out how this universe works. Magic and religion play a huge role in this, and trying to figure out just how seriously to take these things requires more familiarity. John Rozum seems to be going for that classic Vertigo universe blend of black magic and black comedy, and I can get behind that. Despite being in over my head, I’m enjoying it. There’s something to be said for a comic that refuses to use cliché and forces you to pay attention.
Power Man and Iron Fist 4 is a bit more cliché than Xombi, and I feel like the pacing is off — next issue wraps up the series and it’s going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting to connect all the pieces and wrap up all the loose ends. But you know what? Luke Cage, the originaland only Power Man (as far as I’m concerned) showed up and challenged Vic Alvarez to re-asses what it means to be a superhero, and that kinda saved this issue for me. I’m a sucker for Cage, and I really like seeing him as a mentor. If anybody can impart life lessons it’s Cage, and he did so with a compassion and empathy that reinforced my love for him. As much as I like Iron Fist, I think Cage is the more interesting and vital character, and it’s nice to see that’s still true, even in a three-page cameo.
I bought The Mighty Thor 1 with great reluctance. Matt Fraction punted his run on regular ol’ Thor, marginalizing the title character in favor of a supporting cast that was boring and overly-familiar. I think this is a step back in the right direction for both Fraction and the book. Thor and Sif drop through time and space to examine the base of the World Tree (Thor intentionally split it with the Odinsword last month), Loki (who’s now a child with few memories of his true nature — how confusing is this going to be for people coming from the movie theater next month?) goes down to save them because of a dream he had and Broxton’s Pastor Mike muses on the theological implications for Christianity when a bunch of walking, talking Norse gods are your neighbors. Oh, and Silver Surfer apparently plans to drag Galactus our way for a picnic. It’s a big, bold, well-developed first issue that does much more right than it does wrong. I … I liked it. I’m hopeful for even better things in the coming months for this title.
Warlord of Mars 6: Joe Jusko drops all pretense with this month’s cover and has Dejah in a classic Playboy centerfold pose, complete with it being necessary to turn the book on its side to properly view it. At least Jusko’s work is anatomically sound, but still — this is a bit much. Arvid Nelson and Lui Antonio are racing through this one in true pulp fashion, keeping John Carter leaping and fighting and running in his constant attempts to save Dejah Thoris from imminent peril, including being licked by Jabba the Hutt’s bipedal younger brother — all right, that may be an unwarranted comparison, but they seemed willing to invite it. After a decidedly sedate start to this series, it’s really going great guns at this point. Nelson has captured the tone of the original story, and Antonio’s art is exotic, dramatic and everybody is easy on the eyes. There’s definitely a cheese factor — and a cheesecake factor — at work here, but as I mentioned earlier, the world is big enough for all kinds of comics.
From a pure entertainment point of view, it’s a two horse race this week between Amazing Spider-Man and Warlord of Mars. I like ‘em both for different reasons, but they share a common commitment to telling an exciting story well. In the final analysis, I have to give the nod to Amazing Spider-Man because it made me want to share it with a friend — that really is the surest sign of a brilliant comic.
-Paul
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