Comics of the Week - Three is a Magic Number

It's been a while since I wrote about just one comic. I had every intention of picking only one this week, only the one I really liked best. Then I read book after great book and it was impossible to pick just one. Uncanny X-Men #544 ended the series really well, with nods to the past and an eye towards the future. Supergirl #2 picked up from last issue and delivered good story and character development once again. A lot of potential there for this series. Nightwing #2 had several revelations and several beautiful panels. But at the end of the day, it was these three that took the cake for me.

With the first issue of Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo I was left a little unsure. I'm clearly a Snyder Zombie at this point and with good reason. The dude knows how to tell a story. He hasn't missed a beat yet. But this was a different Batman than what he did on Detective Comics, and the art was screaming just how different it was. Maybe it was just the shock of Capullo's art in that first issue, but I wasn't too enthusiastic, even if I did like it overall. With this issue, I'm all in. Capullo's art works perfectly here, probably because there's a lot more action. Snyder used the first issue as a bit of a re-introduction to the world of Batman, and that's fine, but for me, this is where the story really starts. Batman is up against a secret society that has existed in Gotham for hundreds of years, except he won't accept that they even exist because they are a challenge to his status as a legend. We're going to get Gotham history, which is always interesting, conspiracies, legends and Batman having to come to terms with his status as protector of Gotham. Already, I can tell this will be another legendary run in the making. Right off, we have a new villain in the form of this Society of Owls assassin, that I hope sticks around for a long time. Watching Bruce have to fight this killing machine, as Bruce, was good fun. I can't wait for more.

Speaking of legendary runs, Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang are quite possibly giving us the definitive Wonder Woman story she's never had. It's still a bit early to tell where this is going, but so far, it looks like exactly what the character needed. It's rooted in Greek mythology, but the way it's presented has more of a realistic touch to it in spite of the fantastical elements. The pairing of the story and art style is probably one of the most perfect in the relaunch. The way Chiang draws Wonder Woman is very different than anything I have seen. The emphasis is on her athleticism, though her grace comes through in her posture. She's not oversexualized at all, and as a matter of fact, her costume is quite respectable, but she is still beautiful and sexy. This may not be appropriate for young girls, given the horror elements that have and will be involved, but this is a book I would love to have my daughter read. And yet, the feminist aspect is just an afterthought. I don't believe the creators are consciously trying to do this. Instead, they are doing what good writers and artists are supposed to do, telling a good story. And the story is good. There's action to be sure, but every moment in this book felt natural to me. I even sensed a little Shakespearean touch here and there, when dealing with the Gods and it seemed appropriate and subtle. Working with mythological elements like this sometimes leads to cliche and too much cleverness on the part of the writer. This is likely where most writers have failed with Wonder Woman. Azzarello has, so far, found the right approach, by using the myths, but not being afraid of making them his own.

It's the second page of this book where a reporter asks a cop "Is it true that Kung Fu related deaths are already up 200% over last year?" And that's when I knew this book was going to be a blast. I wasn't wrong. Wolverine is packing up to leave San Francisco after the events in X-Men Schism (he's going back to Westchester to rebuild the Xavier school). Along the way, he winds up teaming up with Gorilla Man from Agents of Atlas. Together, they uncover a heroin ring that is bringing in the heroin though, well, let's just say unexpected and unconventional means. After reading about Wolverine inadvertently killing his children in the last arc, as much as I loved it, and the events in X-Men, this is a great palate cleanser of an issue from Jason Aaron. The humor in this is right on. Ron Garney's art is clean and bright. This series has been great from the beginning, but it's good to see the tone can change without negating anything that came before. With Aaron writing this book and the upcoming Wolverine and The X-Men, I suspect we'll get more consistency in how he's portrayed and in the events that take place. I am hoping that part of the story will be that he quits the Avengers to focus on the school as it's the only thing that would make sense, unless his other mutant power involves time manipulation of some sort. Or maybe in the Marvel U, the days are 40 hours long. Either way, this is still a great series and I can't imagine anyone else writing Wolverine now.

Comics of the Week

Uncanny X-Men #542, written by Kieron Gillen, may be a Fear Itself tie in, but at the end of the day, it was just a good X-Men story. Picking up where the last issue left off, the X-Men are still trying to figure out how to stop the amped up Fear Itself Juggernaut, who is on his way to destroy San Francisco, unless the humans destroy Utopia, the X-Men's home, first. Scott's leadership is on display here and we see many of his numbered plans tried and pretty much fail. Meanwhile, he's got his real last ditch plan in motion. He's recruited Magik to go talk to the demon Cytorak with Colossus and Kitty. The twist at the end of the issue is one I didn't know was coming. I'm sure it had been spoiled, but I had managed to avoid the articles about it and I like that. I hope this is a twist that stays for a while.

X-Men Schism #3 seems to be the moment that Wolverine and Scott are going to refer to as the straw that broke the camels back. Wolverine understands guilt. Being a killing machine is a hard burden for him to carry. He may the best there is at what he does, but he takes no joy in it. He will do anything to protect kids, not just from harm, but from this guilt. Scott, on the other hand, has come to believe that mutants can't afford the luxury of innocence. Jason Aaron showcases these two viewpoints, without speeches, to great effect. The tension is high as Wolverine races to the museum to save Oya from the new Hellfire Club as well as what Scott is asking her to do. By the time he arrives, it's worse than he thought. But before he can really get into it with Scott, the real nature of the bomb the Hellfire Club set up is revealed. Schism is turning out to be a great set up for the new X-Men status quo. I'm in.

Comics of the Week

Boy, what a let down. Detective Comics 880, by Scott Snyder and Jock missed every chance it had at being a great comic.  Here we have the next escalation in the ever increasing tension of the story of James Gordon's son, which, last issue, hinted at crossing over with what could be the creepiest Joker in recent memory. Well, here, the ball is dropped. The art, it just, insists on itself. Just look at that cover. It says it all. The writing . . . I can't do it. This was AWESOME, from the cover to the last panel! I just can't figure out a way to write about just how fantastic it is anymore. Every issue in this run has been better than the previous one, tightening the tension to almost unbearable levels. The revelations in this issue amp up the creep factor and instead of releasing the tension, it just takes it further. This run will go down as being among the classic runs in any comic, not to mention one of the best Batman runs ever.

Cobra #3 is the closest the relaunched IDW books have gotten to what they had going before they killed Cobra Commander. Mike Costa shows us just how powerful Tomax is. He knows he won't be the new Commander, but I'm not sure it matters to him. He only cares about vengeance at this point and he certainly has the means to take down G.I. Joe with or without Cobra. He's cool and calculating, but underneath that is the pain of losing his brother. It will be interesting to see if he winds up at odds with Cobra. As it was before the relaunch, this title is the best of the Joe books.









In X-Men Schism #2 the mutants continue to stand firm against the increasing distrust from the rest of the world. Scott is making some very Magneto-like choices, while Wolverine is showing his softer side here. I like this reversal quite a bit. What holds it all together is the obvious respect the two characters have for each other. This would be a run of the mill event if not for the deep character and relationship work going on here. Jason Aaron writes a great Wolverine, but here we see he can write Scott just as well. The art in this book, by Frank Cho, is just gorgeous. The lines may be clean, but the details are many in each facial expression. Cho's Wolverine, in particular, is a story in itself. Much like Trick Daddy, Logan loves the kids.

Comics of the Week

I've never really been a big Daredevil fan. I like the character fine, but never read too many stories. No reason for that, just never got around to it. This week's Daredevil relaunch with Mark Waid might change this. The book opened with what might be the most concise set up of a an origin since Morrison's All Star Superman. And with that, you're off into what it is Daredevil does. He's at a Mafia wedding, stopping a hit, being a badass and having fun. Now, as the book goes along, filling in the gaps of what has come before, we're told that Daredevil wasn't always about fun, at least not recently. But the back up story in this issue nicely addresses this tonal shift in a logical way that makes the character that much more alive to me. The art by Paolo and Joe Rivera is clean but not simple. They use a couple of different ways of making you understand how Matt "sees" the world. I'm going to give this series a shot for a few issues and see what happens.

Uncanny X-Men 541 was much better than the previous issue. While it is still a Fear Itself tie in, things actually happen in this issue. I'm not sure how, or if, any of these events will be tying in with Schism, but if the crux of Schism is whether or not Scott is a good leader, this book makes it clear that he is. There's no doubt in him here. He is careful and calculating when using the few mutants left in the world, most of them children, to fight an amped up Juggernaut. Kieren Gillen gives us Scott as not just a leader, but as a master strategist, always thinking of the next move and ready to adapt to any situation. The best representation of this is when he says it's not plan B, it's plan 2, because B would imply there's only 26 plans. I'm ready to see more plans from Scott.

Comics of the Week

I loved 100 Bullets. I didn't understand all of it, but I think part of what made it brilliant was its shear complexity. The other thing that made it brilliant was its all out grittiness. It was a book that was never easy on the violence, and that violence was never gratuitous. Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso strike again with Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance #2. It would be one thing for them to write a Batman story, which they have, but here they give us a different Batman altogether, in a world that is not held to the same rules we're used to. This may be the best Elseworlds Batman story ever told.

In the Flashpoint world, it was Bruce that was murdered in Crime Alley, setting his father, Thomas on a path to become a different kind of Batman. But this Gotham is also much grittier than the Gotham we're used to, if that's possible. Here, the line separating good guys from bad is so blurred that Thomas Wayne employs both Jim Gordon and Oswald Cobblepot. By the end of this issue, we see exactly how blurred those lines are. It's a moment that you almost see coming, but is still shocking because of just how far the brutality went just before it. Azzarello and Risso never pull their punches.

As expected, this book's biggest strength is that it ultimately has nothing to do with the main Flashpoint story. This is about the world of this Batman, and it's a world that is rich in detail. While we see familiar characters show up in unexpected ways, it's clear there is depth behind each one. It isn't a spot the characters situation and instead leaves you genuinely wondering what brought them to where they are. And it's because of this depth that I have one problem with this book: that it will end. I can only hope in the months after the reboot that they come back and do further stories in this continuity.

Meanwhile, in the main Flashpoint book, we finally see what Kal El is like in this world. I like the fact that it is such a different take on the character. I don't doubt that before the series is over he'll wind up being much closer to the Superman we all know, but for now, it's a fresh take. I've always said the best Superman stories are the Elseworlds versions, and while this isn't as great as the Batman book, it could still lead to some interesting developments, particularly in exploring the relationship between the two characters. Ultimately, though, the Flashpoint book is mainly just good concepts, with mediocre execution. What it does have going for it is that the main points of the event take place in the main book.

Fear Itself #4 was much better than the last 3 issues, with more of a sense of things happening in the pages of the book itself. Particularly, the return of Steve Rogers as Captain America. However, for events to actually matter after 4 issues might be too late. I'm still not sure what the event is actually about, and I'm not sure that would be different if I were reading all the tie ins. Yes, this mysterious Serpent character from Odin's past has unleashed a bunch of hammers on the world and now several characters are running around, possessed, causing chaos with said hammers. But that's a just a set up. Four issues in, I should understand the stakes and what it's all really all about. So far, it doesn't come across any different than any other time someone has wreaked havoc on the Marvel U. Not helping matters is an X-Men tie in Uncanny X-Men #540 that not only did not tell me anything about Fear Itself, it brought the X-Men story to a grinding halt. Absolutely nothing happened in this book, which is a real shame since I was getting into the world of the X-Men for the past couple of issues. Now, I'm not so sure I need to pick up the next one. At least not until Fear Itself is done.

Comics of the Week

What Mark Waid has created in his books Irredeemable and Incorruptible is a continuity in a world with consequences. Incorruptible #19 has one thread that deals with consequences in one of the most realistic ways I've seen in a superhero comic. Max Damage was a villain who after The Plutonian (think Superman) went insane and started killing everyone in Irredeemable, decided he had to do the right thing. The problem for him has been that he wasn't just a supervillain. Max Damage did some truly horrible, evil things. In previous issues, we already dealt with the fact that his sidekick was an underage girl named Jailbait, who he had a sexual relationship with. In the last issue, Max went looking for the only man honest enough to rebuild the city of Coalville, which is in chaos. The problem is, a few years back, Max killed this man's young son in cold blood. Issues of redemption and forgiveness are impossible in this situation. Instead, this is just the struggle of a man trying to do what he thinks is right, now, and coming up against the brick wall of his past at every turn.

My journey back to Marvel and specifically X-Men is going well. Uncanny X-Men #539, by Kieron Gillen, is a stand alone story focusing on Hope and Wolverine. I don't know much about Hope, but it doesn't matter. This issue gives you enough so you can follow along. Wolverine has been keeping his distance from her, and she doesn't know why. Then, she is kidnapped by The Crimson Commando who wants her to heal him. Wolverine goes in to rescue her, alone. What makes the issue great is the same thing I've been loving from Uncanny X-Force and the Wolverine book. Apparently, Wolverine is interesting again. The reason he has been staying away is because Hope may turn into something horrible (Dark Phoenix?) and he knows he'll have to be the one to take her out. The moments between Hope and Wolverine have me ready to read more X-Men stories. Also helping matters, I have to say the art by Ibraim Roberson had me staring at some panels in awe.

Detective Comics #878 continues the amazing run of Scott Snyder and Jock and ends the arc that started a few issues back about Tiger Shark. That's all well and good and there were amazing moments, like Batman using an ultrasonic device to communicate with killer whales in order to get out of Tiger Shark's death trap. But the real jaw dropper is the last page, leading into the next issue and arc. I can't say this enough, I will miss Dick as Batman. I'm sure Snyder will do well with Bruce on the Batman book, but this is just so good. As I was reading it, I could see this as an episode of a new, gritty, Batman TV series, where the stories can be a little smaller than the Nolan films, but tight and well told just the same.

Comic Moments of the Week

Uncanny X-Men 534.1 is the latest of Marvel's .1 issues, designed to be jumping on points. In this case, I think it accomplished it's purpose because I am going to try to jump on. I didn't feel lost reading this, even though I haven't read X-Men in a very long time. But then, again, the last X-Men I read wasn't THAT long ago. It was during the Dark Reign, which I think set up most of the current status quo. In any case, Magneto is an X-Man now and the whole meat of this issue is that they've hired a publicist to help make him more acceptable to the public. Right off, that's a great concept. The execution is even better as most of the issue is spent in conversations between Magneto and the publicist about propaganda, fear, respect, etc, that manage to fill you in on events while not coming off as exposition for exposition's sake.

A new story arc, though I'm not sure a good jumping on point, begins in Sweet Tooth #20. I just don't see skipping the first 19 issues. The series hinges on these characters' development and even though part of what makes it brilliant is that the characters are revealed in every panel, their development over time, in relation to how all encompassing each panel can be is something to behold. There's two pages of conversation between Jeppard and Sweet Tooth in this issue that are absolutely perfect. Jeff Lemire, writing and drawing, puts a scene together that I would love to buy the original pages for. I won't post the whole page, but here's the first panel, which, by itself, would make a great painting. Beautiful composition.

And, what the hell, here's another panel from the issue that I love.

Also out, and as insane as expected, Axe Cop Bad Guy Earth #2. There's not much I can say about this issue that pretty much any random page couldn't tell you better. To top it off, this happens to be the first page. It's just pure, imaginative fun from a six year old brain.