Quite a haul this week, and comics from all points of the genre spectrum. It’s nice that there are so many options at the moment — I came home with everything from super-science-sci-fi to gritty western, with a humor book as my aperitif. Oh, and I maybe bought a viking book as well.
Legion of Super-Heroes 3 wraps up this first arc, and it’s not an earth-shaking, explosive tale that changes the way I look at comics at all — and that’s a relief. Instead, Paul Levitz and Francis Portela deliver a solid conclusion to what’s actually been (so far) a rather prosaic action comic. Again, no complaint intended. Part of the team figures out how to best the rogue Daxamite, Renegade, while another chunk of the team works to get there in time for the clean-up. Honestly, after the past six months of DC doing the “we’ve got our backs against the wall/oh no!, there goes the wall!” it’s nice to read something that hearkens back to a simpler time. A time when costumed, attractive people with suprahuman powers beat up other costumed, powered bad people while I rooted for the good guys. See how simple it can be?
Hawken 1 is a family affair (father/son duo Tim and Benjamin Truman co-plot while dad handles the art alone) that’s not very family friendly. Our main character, Hawken, is a grizzled old range rider who can see and talk with the ghosts of all the people he’s killed, and they kinda sorta help him track down other people for him to kill. This issue features Tim Truman’s glorious artwork in black & white (despite the ad for this very issue that’s in the back of the issue claiming this is in “full color”), and he mostly depicts a bunch of people getting shot by Hawken as he mows down a gang of troublemakers in a small mission town. No fooling, a whole lot of people get shot in the face in this title — it’s pretty amazing. Tim Truman fans (and we are legion) will find much to like here. There’s the western scenery, the curmudgeon-with-a-gun lead character, a lot of flat-out nasty humor and a bunch of face carnage. One issue and it’s already vaulted into my top ten favorite books.
I’ve been enjoying Planet of the Apes by Daryl Gregory and Carlos Magno, but several times I’ve mentioned that I’m really just waiting for the world-breaking Ape vs. Human war that has to happen. Last month set the stage for this inevitable battle, and issue 8 here sees it flare into a massive street battle. Apes and humans start killing each other wholesale, with pretty much the worst possible outcome for our heroine, Sullivan, who’s way too pregnant to be sniping ape soldiers off the hulls of steam-powered tanks, but hey — a lady’s got to do what she’s gotta do. I’ve avoided reading anything about this book because I don’t want to see spoilers, but I know that none of the humans are going to make it. Still, by the final page I was hoping for a last-minute escape for … I really can’t tell you because I don’t want to spoil it. Let’s just say that Gregory and Magno appear to be fine with a no survivors policy and leave it. Ugh.
Captain Victory 1 is the second spin-off from Dynamite’s Kirby Genesis project, and it has several strong Kirby signposts along the way — maybe too many. Hero Captain Victory comes from a family background of pure evil (Orion), he’s a warrior with computer back-up for all systems to the point of near-instantaneous resuscitation (OMAC), he hangs around with a big cat-man (Kamandi) and his main villain wears ridiculous, vision-impairing headgear (everything Kirby ever did). Kirby liked to recycle ideas and he had his touchstone concepts, but Sterling Gates hews too closely to imitation rather than inspiration. But it’s a first issue, so maybe some of the more overt elements are dropped over time — my fondness for the works of Jack Kirby cause me to be generous towards Dynamite’s noble project. I mean, there’s like 14 Wolverine books of middling quality. I think we can handle a few Kirby-inspired books trying to find their feet.
Jason Aaron and Marc Silvestri’s The Incredible Hulk 2 is an unusual comic, and not just because Silvestri was helped out by a cast of thousands (www.comicsalliance.com/2011/11/11/incredible-hulk-2-11-artists-silvestri/). I’ve been out of the Hulk loop for a bit, but Aaron’s caught me up on all the major developments in two issues. The big development is that Bruce Banner is Bruce and Hulk is Hulk, and never the twain shall meet. Except that Secret Agent lady von Doom (no relation) wants to enlist Hulk’s help to bring down Banner, because that guy’s gone cuckoo. In the space of a few pages, Bruce goes from trying to make his marriage to Betty Ross-Banner work to injecting junk in his brain in an effort to recreate his Hulkiness. We’ve seen a lot of versions of the “they’re separate/they’re the same” Hulk storyline over the years, but Aaron’s added a new (to me) wrinkle in the idea that Hulk is Banner’s major scientific achievement, and Banner will do anything to recreate the initial experiment and continue to develop the technology. Outside of the comic in the rational world I’m not quite convinced that this twist makes sense, but while reading the comic it makes complete sense. More importantly, I find this idea intriguing and entertaining. On the surface it’s just another “we’re getting the Hulk back together!” storyline, but Aaron makes it feel new. And Silvestri (& company, I guess?) draws a mean-looking Hulk; this is maybe my favorite Hulk since the Dale Keown years.
The Amazing Spider-Man 674 sees the last little bits of the Spider Island story put to bed, but Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli throw us right into a new storyline involving a very old Spider-foe (hint: the villain’s name is spelled out on the cover). Actually, Slott picks up several older threads (Kingpin and Hobgoblin, Pete’s love life, Spidey’s reputation as a menace) and commences to setting up several possible directions for future stories in that effortless, highly entertaining way he has. I’ve tried to bring this to your attention before, but are you aware that we’re witnessing one of the greatest acts of creation in comic books, you name the era? Dan Slott is writing a comic book for the ages in ASM, and you’d better recognize. Also, Camuncoli works Peter’s freakish anatomy with a verve that’s astonishing in this issue. He fights some cops in powered armor and it’s a joy to behold. You should really be buying this book.
Conan: Road of Kings 10 concludes Roy Thomas’ “big political trouble in little Aquilonia” story with great flair, mostly because fill-in artist Dan Panosian treats this book exactly as it should be treated: Like it’s the greatest action comic on the stands. I cannot stress how much better this book is when Mike Hawthorne isn’t the artist. Panosian renders a great escape for Conan that involves him swinging from a chandelier and launching himself out of a castle with grace and suitable damage, and then gives us a fantastic Conan vs. giant lizard battle in a stink-pit. It’s too bad Hawthorne returns next month, but soon after we get Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan and Belit. I can’t wait.
Sergio Aragones’ Funnies 5 features the legendary cartoonist sharing the details of his third or fourth career as a professional soundman on several nature documentaries. Those Dos Equis commercials with the Most Interesting Man in the World are clearly based on Sergio’s life, because the guy’s apparently done everything (very well), and he can make even the act of filming penguins interesting. SAF has the loose feel of the most indie of indie self-confessional comic books, but also has the peerless talent of Aragones the artist and Aragones the writer. He’s a natural-born storyteller, and his medium is the comic book. Plus, he’s funny. Absolutely a must-buy book every month.
Northlanders 46 makes me very sad. Only four more issues after this one and my favorite comic of all time is dunzo. But Brian Wood is going out like a true viking, with a mountain of corpses in his wake and an ocean of blood about to come crashing down on an unsuspecting land. In this instance it’s Iceland about to get dunked, as Brida Hauksson prepares to avenge herself on the Belgarsson family for their recent assassination attempt — and also because Haukssons always kill Belgarssons. Brian Wood writes powerful, realistic female characters, but Brida is a piece of work even for him. She’s tenth century Iceland’s 1% — rich, powerful, entitled — but she’s also somewhat powerless because she’s a woman in a man’s society. Also, Iceland is converting to Christianity all around her, and she’s bound and determined to stay true to her gods and goddesses, a contrary loyalty that makes her even less powerful. And yet there she is, planning retaliatory raids and killing guys in the name of honor — and because it’s the family business. So we have a fully-realized woman who’s holding together an entire clan and keeping the faith while everyone around her throws in the towel, and she stabs random old ladies as a matter of course (that old lady totally had it coming, by the way). This current arc is my first exposure to the art of Declan Shalvey, and I really regret that. His attention to detail is pitch-perfect. Look at that creepy helmet with the eye-holes up there; hell, look at that scrawny Icelandic pony. It’d be easy to draw your standard heroic horse – there’s all kind of reference for that – but he gets it right instead with a stunted scrub-pony. Guh, I can’t believe this book is canceled. Is it because Wood pays so much heed to the role of women as people rather than sex objects, is that why this book was axed?
Anyhow, my favorite comic book, Northlanders, is the best thing I read this week. There was a lot of great stuff in contention this week — Hawken, Spider-Man, Sergio Aragones’ Funnies, Conan — but there’s nothing like Brian Wood’s Northlanders as far as I’m concerned. And soon there will be nothing like it at all.
-Paul
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