All About Comics Blog

Incognito #1 — Writer: Ed Brubaker;  Art: Sean Phillips
Kind of a step backwards for Brubaker and Phillips, into Sleeper territory — and, since it’s under the creator-owned Icon imprint, there’s no connection to the Marvel Universe, either, which might have been fun (still, noir-with-superpowers is something this team is very good at, so it’s hard to begrudge them wanting to own the whole package, instead of just getting royalties for using someone else’s characters). If you’ve been following Criminal, this is more of the same, except with masks, which is to say that it’s still very much worth reading.

Green Lantern #36 — Writer: Geoff Johns;  Pencils: Ivan Reis;  Inks: Oclair Albert
Give Johns his due: we now have yellow, red, blue and (um, indigo, violet? Whichever color turns you into a slut, apparently…) lantern energies, with black on the horizon, and in anyone else’s hands this would be the stupidest thing imaginable. Somehow, he and Reis make it work; it’s just the kind of sprawling, well-thought-out cosmic fun that this title should be providing.

30 Days of Night: 30 Days ‘Til Death #2 — Writer/Artist: David Lapham
This property continues to be a good fit for Lapham: he jazzes it up; you’ve got satires of bourgeois life, comparisons of vampirism to alcoholism (or sex addiction, leading to lines like “Have you ever been with someone you’re supposed to love, but all you really wanted to do was rip their head off and drink their blood?”), and Lapham’s knack for rendering both the believable little tics of everyday life and spasms of extreme cartoon violence. It’s miles above the usual knockoff vampire/zombie crap that passes for comics horror these days, and well worth a look.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera #2 (of 6) — Writer: Kurt Busiek;  Artist: Jay Anacleto
This seems to have come in under everyone’s radar: a sequel of sorts to Marvels, continuing that mini-series’s examination of the Marvel Universe through Phil Sheldon, its nonpowered, ground-level reporter/photographer character. Busiek has thought quite a bit about heroism, both super- and not (see Astro City), and this offers both a literate, thoughtful take on that theme and a big valentine to ’70s Marvel continuity — better than 50 comics stories from that period get referenced, without it getting too cloying or obvious. A neat trick, that, and yet another reason to like this comic.

Justice Society of America #22 — Story: Geoff Johns and Alex Ross; Writer: Geoff Johns;  Penciller: Dale Eaglesham;  Inker: Nathan Massengill; Painted Pages: Alex Ross
The conclusion to the Gog/Magog/Kingdom Come story, and while it went on about three issues too long, this conclusion is Read the rest of this entry »

Ultimate Hulk Annual #1 — Writer: Jeph Loeb;  Art:  Ed McGuinness/Dexter Vines and Marco Djurdjevic and Danny Miki
Zarda (from Squadron Supreme, or Supreme Power, or whatever it’s called now) has a big fight with the Hulk involving his lack of pants, after which they eat waffles, and then go to a motel and have sex. No, I’m not kidding.  Loeb seems to be going for some kind of weird satire (the jokey, faux-Stan Lee intros suggest it), but, like all of his Ultimates work, this represents a creepy, repulsive view of an “adult” superhero world, and it just doesn’t come off successfully.

Punisher War Journal #26 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Artist: Andy MacDonald
A one-off story involving a bunch of petty thugs who latch on to the Stilt-Man’s armor, plus an appearance by the Rhino, who, to both his, Frank’s and our surprise, ends up representing the voice of reason (albeit one with a Santa hat on his horn). OK, but even though I generally applaud Fraction’s writing (see the reviews from two weeks ago), on the Punisher his stuff often doesn’t quite click with me; he needs an artist like Howard Chaykin to get him over the top, and he doesn’t have one here.

Madame Xanadu #7 — Writer: Matt Wagner;  Penciller: Amy Reeder Hadley;  Inker: Richard Friend
I still like Hadley’s open, attractive art, and Xanadu’s clearly a good character match for her talents, but this book’s chronological march through history has become predictable; focusing this issue on Jack the Ripper shows off some of Wagner’s historical research, but it goes just about where you’d think it would, and by the time the Phantom Stranger shows up yet again, the reader is just as tired of him as the title character is. At least for me, this title continues to be worth reading, but not worth buying.

Teen Titans #66 — Writer: Sean McKeever;  Pencils: Eddy Barrows;  Inks: Ruy Jose and Julio Ferriera
Same here — McKeever tries his hardest to make the characters and situations in this book interesting, and it’s a readable result, but he’s undone by editorial fiat; by the end of the issue he’s got a team consisting of Kid Devil, Blue Beetle, Misfit, Wonder Girl, Bombshell and Spoiler. It’s an accepted team-book tactic to mix in a few minor characters, but Read the rest of this entry »

In the 60’s, there was one comic issued by DC that had about 100 pages and it had a story line that involved most, if not all, of the DC heroes.

Whats the story where Conan the cimmerian is cursed by a wizard with a mark on his head that makes him child like and unable to fight but whenever people get close to him and starts being happy, demons appear and kill those hes close with. The mark is like an upside down cross.

The Professor, having made it through the holidays intact (and getting increasingly grumpy about having to go back to, you know, actually teaching next week), first needs to clear out the above three requests. Unfortunately, all three show the Professor’s lameness as an omnipotent comics deity, because he doesn’t know the answer to any of them.

That doesn’t mean the Professor can’t make some guesses, though (he isn’t completely lame). The first one, about the ’60s DC 100-pager, the Professor guesses might actually be from the early ’70s, since ’60s DC books didn’t go past the 80-Page Giants (although, of course, it might have been one of those, if the requester’s count was off). For a comic with a bunch of the heroes, the Professor can make a tentative guess that it might be DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #6 (subtitled “The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes). That’s the one with a great Neal Adams wraparound cover, and a bunch of stories, including a reprint of the first JLA/JSA team-up from JLA #21-22.  DC did a reprint of it a couple of years ago (for $8.95, as opposed to the original 50 cents), so it should be reasonably easy to find.

The “giant comic with the mirror” is more problematic. The “host” bit makes the Professor guess that it was one of the DC mystery titles, since they had the hosts (Marvel had a few, too, like Tower of Shadows et al., but the Professor actually read most of those, and it doesn’t ring any bells), and the mirror gimmick sounds like a good way to connect up a bunch of otherwise-unrelated stories. Both House of Mystery and House of Secrets had a few 100-page issues as part of their regular runs; so did The Unexpected, which sometimes had more sf-type stories, and so might be a good bet, too. Another possibility might be DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #4, because that was subtitled “Weird Mystery Tales,” but the Professor doesn’t have a copy of that in his own collection to check.

Finally, the Conan question: again, the Professor doesn’t know. He’s got the Conan Marvel comic up to issue #100, but after that he stopped reading it, except sporadically, and since it could also have appeared in the Savage Sword magazine, or Conan the King, or any of the zillions of later Conan mini-series, it’s hard to tell. If the Professor had to make a hazy guess, he’d say it sounds like something from the period when Jim Owsley was writing it (before he changed his name to Christopher Priest, but that’s another story), ’round about issues in the 170s or so.

The Professor does have one other suggestion, for all three requests: check out the Grand Comic Book Database. It’s available online at www.comics.org  , and it offers a searchable database of just about every comic ever printed; if you type in “Conan,” you’ll get a list of Conan titles, and clicking on them will lead you to a cover gallery. If any of the covers look familiar, clicking on them will give you a list of story credits for that particular issue. A warning, though: if you like old, or even recent comics, this site is a complete time sink; you’ll spend hours looking at old comic covers, and never get anything else done for days. You might see a cover that sparks your memory, though, and solves your comics mystery….

Batman #683 — Writer: Grant Morrison;  Penciller: Lee Garbett;  Inker: Trevor Scott
OK, so let’s get this straight: the whole Batman: R. I. P. thing had no effect whatsoever on Bruce Wayne’s life and/or death; he came out of it fine, beat the bad guys, and then went off to join the JLA for Final Crisis, where he was captured, stuck into a mind meld with that Lump thing from the Kirby Mister Miracle books, and that’s where we are now. The reason I can live with that is that these last two issues of mindplay have given Morrison a chance to do a condensed retrospective of Batman’s career, and between them and the last R. I. P. issue he’s managed to drive home his “Batman not only can’t be beaten, but he’s so far ahead of you that he’ll kick your ass before you can even find it with both hands” tutorial. Fair enough, because it’s fun to read about a guy like that (especially when, as readers, we don’t know he’s ahead of everybody — which explains a lot of the seeming plot hiccups in R. I. P., too). Now, if only the next, and supposedly “last adventure,” in Final Crisis #6, can offer a satisfyingly apocalyptic version of that Batman Lesson, we can all enjoy the show, go home and relax, and wait out the next few “Battle for the Cowl” months until the real deal comes back again.

Captain America: Theater of War #1 (of 1) — Writer/Artist: Howard Chaykin
Chaykin offering a 44-page story of the 1950s Cap, involved with both the Red Scare (via a thinly-disguised “Senator Joe McMurphy” and his aide, “Ray Kahn”) and actual Reds. As per usual for Chaykin, it’s sophisticated, cynical, very knowledgeable about the fashions, language and politics of that era, and beautiful to look at; considering that it would be two full issues of a regular comic, the $4.99 price is a bargain. Throw in 12 pages of reprints of the actual ’50s Cap, too, and you’ve got yourself an even better deal.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #3 — Writer/Artist: Mike Kunkel
This is definitely a “younger readers” version of the character, especially given the sketchy, cartoony pencils, but it’s a good story for all that: adults can appreciate the interplay between the main characters, and Kunkel manages to triangulate the C. C. Beck, Jeff Smith, and (what? Don Newton? Jerry Ordway? Alex Ross? Whatever you want to call the “realistic,” DC-house version…) styles of the character into an understandable, readable and satisfying combination. Good for him. Now, if people would only buy the thing….

New Avengers #48 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis;  Penciler: Billy Tan;  Inker: Matt Banning
Back to present continuity, thank God, as the current anti-Osborne membership gets sorted out, and the saerch for Luke and Jessica’s baby drives the plot, culminating in a final scene that’s both logical and chilling. Points off for having one of those stupid scenes where the critical information is about to be revealed by the defeated bad guy, but Read the rest of this entry »

The Spirit Special #1 — Creator: Will Eisner
Four Eisner seven-pagers: “Sign of the Octopus,” from 1947,  “Black Alley” from 1949, and the two-part introduction of Sand Seref from 1950. The only reason it’s on the “put back” list is because I already have all the stories; I chanced upon Denny Colt via the Warren magazine reprints 30 years ago, and have been a fan ever since. That being said, this is a wrongheaded package: the lead story prominently features Ebony, making this book problematic as a give-away to non-fans interested by the movie (insert your own joke here) and DC provides no editorial content to explain it, because at 36 pages they had no space after the ads. Shoulda gone with another four pages and a scholarly essay or two on Eisner, guys — it would have made this a better tribute, especially now that the general public is going to think of “The Spirit” the same way they think of “Howard the Duck”: as a cinematic disaster instead of a great comic.

Secret Invasion: Requiem #1  — Writer: Dan Slott;  Artist: Khoi Pham
All about Janet Van Dyne: nine pages of new material, wrapped around a Tales To Astonish reprint of the Wasp’s first appearance (Kirby is listed as artist, but don’t get too excited; it’s more his rough layouts over Don Heck inks) and the Jim Shooter/Bob Hall Avengers story that turned Hank Pym into a wife-beater (it’s got the typical Shooter-era strengths — the imaginative situations and compelling soap opera — and weaknesses — the who-talks-that-way dialogue). The comics are recolored, and on considerably better paper than the originals, so they might be worth it if you’ve never read them; they’ll give you something to do while you’re waiting for the character’s inevitable resurrection.

Patsy Walker: Hellcat #4 (of 5) — Writer: Kathryn Immonen;  Artist: David LaFuente
This continues to be a nice quirky diversion, lightweight but fun, with appealing art and a story that refuses to use any of the standard superhero-female cliches (except to gently mock them), and yet offers a very self-assured, strong and attractive version of the title character. If the final issue manages to live up to the first four, I’m going to have to back up, get them all, and move the whole package retroactively to the “Stuff I Bought” column….

Thor #12 — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski;  Penciler: Olivier Coipel;  Inker: Mark Morales
At issue #12, we’re presumably at the end of the second trade collection, so we get Loki and Hela meeting in Las Vegas, and the revelation of Loki’s True Evil Plan: and, with one possible wrinkle, it’s the same damn plan (s)he always has. Presented well, as always — Straczynski is nothing if not professional as a storyteller — but it’s still just old gifts in slightly newer wrappings, and I’ve yet to be able to warm to Coipel’s slick-but-soulless art.

Rann/Thanagar: Holy War #8 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Jim Starlin;  Penciller: Ron Lim;  Inker: Rob Hunter
Let me save you some time here (and spoilers, if you care…):  Read the rest of this entry »

Invincible Iron Man #8 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Artist: Salvador Larroca
Thor God-Size Special #1 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Artists: Dan Brereton, Doug Braithwaite, Mike Allred and Miguel Angel Sepulveda
Uncanny X-Men #505 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Penciler: Terry Dodson;  Inker: Rachel Dodson
I’ve become increasingly impressed with Matt Fraction; his Iron Man has been a textbook example of how a creator can blend the best of a popular movie version of a character with the ongoing, continuity-laden comic version, and manage to please both old and new readers. Here, he has the unenviable task of synching Tony Stark and crew with yet another group of creators’ take on the characters — in the aftermath of Secret Invasion, and the beginning of Dark Reign — and he does it gracefully and well, making Tony Stark a sympathetic fugitive, with an engaging mission and supporting cast.
The Thor special shows his versatility, moving from straight superheroics to Nordic myth, and it’s also a valentine to the Walt Simonson ’80s run on the character, a sequel of sorts to the Skurge the Executioner story from Thor #362. Each of the listed artists supplies a chapter (amusingly, Allred’s contribution shows Loki as a guy, instead of the current female version, and I wonder whether that was part of the original plan or a screwup, since the writing seems to be stretching to patch the story around it), culminating in a reprint of the original Simonson version. At 64 pages for $4, and only a handful of ad pages, this offers a bundle of good comics, and is the bargain of the week.
Uncanny X-Men is probably the least of the lot script-wise — it’s standard superhero soap opera, an opening chapter in a longer story, competent but without much dramatic payoff — but even here there’s reason to get the book: the bonus of the Dodson art, especially, and also because Fraction knows enough to play to his collaborator’s strengths, giving him plenty of opportunity to draw gorgeous women, and smoothly integrating the story with Emma Frost’s appearance in the Dark Reign Special’s villains’ meeting last week, too.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #20 — Writer: Jeph Loeb; Pencils: Georges Jeanty;  Inks: Andy Owens;  Animation: Eric Wright, Ethen Beavers and Adam Van Wyk
I saw the Loeb credit and thought “Uh oh,” but not to worry — this is not an Ultimate Buffy III, nor does it feature a red-hued version of the character (and, while both universes have characters called Watchers, none of them get punched, either). Instead, it’s an “intermission” story, a one-shot dream sequence set between larger arcs, and it’s meant as a way of using the concepts and character designs of the never-completed Buffy animated series that Loeb and Joss Whedon developed a while ago. That makes it both an interesting historical artifact and a lighthearted diversion, one that manages a nostalgiac look back at the high-school-era Buffy while acknowledging that you can’t go home again — except, sometimes, in your sleep.

Fables #79 — Writer: Bill Willingham;  Penciller: Mark Buckingham;  Inker: Andrew Pepoy
In which we find that winning the climactic battle with the Adversary (against overwhelming odds) might not have been quite the triumph it seemed, because Read the rest of this entry »

DC Universe Holiday Special #1 (of 1) — Writers: Various, including Dan Didio, Joe Kelly and Paul Dini;  Artists: Various, including Ian Churchill, Dustin Nguyen, Rafael Albuquerque and Kevin McGuire
Lots of anthology specials this week; how you feel about them, of course, depends on whether there are enough “good” artists and writers to justify the price. Here, for $6, there’s a beautiful Frank Quitely Christmas cover, a pretty-good JLA 7-pager by McGuire, a Didio Aquaman story whose dialogue you can make fun of (”Back down, Aquaman, or I, Captain Blanco, will kill her where she stands”: who talks like that?), and then tales of the Bat-family, the Titans, the Blue Beetles, the Huntress, etc., etc. — 72 pages in all. Verdict: not particularly worth the money.

Hellblazer #250 — Writers: Various, including Dave Gibbons, Brian Azzarello, Jamie Delano and Peter Milligan;  Artsist: Various, including Sean Phillips, David Lloyd and Eddie Campbell
Hellblazer’s up to #250? Geez, now I’m officially old, since I remember the character’s first appearance in Swamp Thing, back when Alan Moore was the new good writer nobody but Brits had ever heard of; who’d have thought cynicism, mysticism, silk cuts and a bad attitude (plus looking like Sting) would get John Constantine this far?  Maybe it’s because you can tell so many different kinds of stories with a character like that: look at the list of creators for this anniversary issue (just about all of whom have done Hellblazer arcs in the past), and it’s undeniably impressive. The stories themselves? All Christmas or holidays-related, which lends them a certain sameness, but five tales/48 pages for $4 isn’t a bad deal, and how often do you get, oh, Eddie Campbell art over a Peter Milligan script? Verdict: maybe worth the money, especially if you’re any kind of fan of the character.

Dark Reign: New Nation #1 (of 1) — Writers: Various, including Brian Michael Bendis , Greg Pak, Jeff Parker and Adam Felber;  Artists: Various, including Stefano Caselli, Carlo Pagulayan and Leonardo Manco
Also $4 for 48 pages, but this should really be less, because it’s basically a promo book for Marvel’s 2009 new series, all revolving around Norman Osborne and the aftermath of Secret Invasion. The five stories/titles: Secret Warriors (Nick Fury and those kids he all trained to fight Skrulls), Agents of Atlas, War Machine, Skrull Kill Krew, and New Avengers: The Reunion (which, here, is a Hawkeye/Mockingbird conversation). As with all promo tales, little is revealed; we’re just given enough of a taste to direct us over to the actual titles when they come out. Frankly, there doesn’t seem to be much to get excited about; if anything, the lack of memorable moments or decent character bits makes me less likely to check out the new stuff. Verdict: maybe if it had been free….

Spider-Man: Noir #1 (of 4) — Writer: David Hine with Fabrice Sapolsky;  Art: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Now, see, the X-Men: Noir book was interesting, just because it was different, but this is the exact same idea — set the characters in NYC in the ’30s, and no one has any actual powers — and it’s already tiresome.  Peter Parker as Read the rest of this entry »

Phonogram: The Singles Club #1 (of 7) — Writer: Kieron Gillen; Art: Jamie McKelvie
The first Phonogram had a story whose intentions never quite got matched by its execution, but it was a noble, interesting effort with a clear and appealing voice; the after-essays by Gillen, about writing and about British pop music of the last 20 years, made the books worth keeping. Here, both he and McKelvie have a narrower narrative focus, and they’re assured enough to tell a good one-issue, character-driven part of a larger story. Nicely done, and there’s another essay about British pop, too, one that’ll drive you to iTunes (or more shadowy sites), in search of obscure Pipettes singles.

Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge #383 — Writer/Artist: Don Rosa
The Rosa story is one of his best: “Guardians of the Lost Library,” a tale spotlighting the nigh-omnipotent Junior Woodchucks Guidebook; it starts slowly, and then, like a boulder rolling downhill, picks up speed, namechecks most of the known treasures and hidden knowledge of both the real and the Duck universes, and wraps it all up with a perfect denoument: it’s like The DaVinci Code, only in 28 pages, and considerably better written (and more clever, too). Add two other stories, plus four new pages of Rosa editorial essays, plus a new Rosa poster on the back cover, and even readers who have the original (not many besides me and other true Duck fans, I bet; it appeared in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27, back in ‘94, and has never been reprinted) will find this worth their while.

Final Crisis #5 (of 7) — Writer: Grant Morrison; Art: J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy and Jesus Merino
You can’t accuse Morrison of thinking small: the Earth is being pulled into a singularity, down into a hell spawned by Darkseid, as three billion slaves do his every bidding, Frankenstein’s monster quotes Milton, the Green Lantern Corps tries to fly to the rescue, a Rubik’s Cube gets solved in 17 moves, and… there are still two issues to go! Whether this will all make any sense at the end (given all those rumors of forced rewrites, and the tag-team art in this issue) is anybody’s guess, but it’s certainly a wild ride, with layers of subtext and panels crammed with super-people doing desperate and wonderful things; I’ll look forward to reading this all in one sitting in a way that would seem superfluous with a more standard, straightforward action series like, say, Secret Invasion.

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1 (of 1) — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Art: Alex Maleev
Here, for example, we have a whole one-shot devoted to just one conversation: the meeting of the “evil Illumanati” begun at the end of the SI mini-series, as Norman Osborne gathers Dr. Doom, Emma Frost, the Hood, Namor and Loki for a chat about The Way Things Are Going To Be. Bendis and Maleev have always made a good team, and his ear for dialogue serves him well here; this story may not offer the blow-your-head-off weirdness of Final Crisis, but Read the rest of this entry »

Action #872 — Writer: Geoff Johns;  Artist: Pete Woods
Comic math: Action plus The Creature Commandoes and Ultraa the Multi-Alien (all found in Brainiac’s ship, but don’t ask) plus New Krypton (really don’t ask) minus Gary Franks’s humanizing and luminous art all equals I’m not buying this any more.

Green Arrow and Black Canary #15 — Writer: Andrew Kreisberg;  Penciller: Mike Norton;  Inker: Josef Rubenstein
New guy Kreisberg gets off a nice framing device, but also falls into the new-guy trap of wanting to summarize the character’s life and immediately try to hammer on What Makes Him Unique, which leaves little time for an actual story. Meh, but he shows signs that he might be able to get something going within a few issues; he’s worth checking back on.

Superman/Batman #54 — Writer: Michael Green and Mike Johnson;  Pencils: Rags Morales;  Inks: John Dell
We’re in the middle of a “Supes’s powers get switched to Bats accidentally” arc. OK, I guess, although it’s all pretty standard stuff — Bruce threatens to be overwhelmed by the global responsibility; Clark goes rushing off down the wrong dark alley. If there’s a reason to buy it, it’s the Morales art — sometimes the figures are off anatomically, but it’s always true to its own style, and never the kind of smooth cookie-cutter sameness that lesser artists fall back on.

Ythaq: The Forbidden World Book One #1 (of 3) — Writer: Christophe Arleston;  Artist: Adrien Floch
Standard European Heavy Metalesque alien-world fantasy sf, enlivened by the smooth, open art (although it needs to open up more; most of the pages are crammed with panels, with only one after-thought splash to show what Floch is capable of on a larger scale). Nothing we haven’t seen before, but smoothly done; with a satisfying chunk of story, but for $6.00, it’s not quite interesting enough.

Wolverine: Flies to a Spider #1 (of 1) — Writer: Gregg Hurwitz;  Penciler: Jerome Opena;  Inkers: jerome Opena and John Lucas
If someone commissioned you to do a standard Wolverine story, you’d probably open it in a seedy bar, establish its denizens as lowlifes, and then let Logan show up to whup ‘em (in an edgy “adult” version, he’d ram pool cues through their throats, and pop his claws through their ears into their brains).  Of course, you’d Read the rest of this entry »

Secret Invasion #8 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis;  Penciler: Leonil Francis Yu;  Inker: Mark Morales
This seems to have both started and ended better than Final Crisis (assuming Final Crisis ever ends…), although FC had its moments in the middle, and SI bogged down there. This last episode, though, has plenty of slam-bang events, and the “Dark Reign” setup turns out to be much better than I had feared (although, geez, can’t we please, at some point, have an actual end to a story?). Yes, it went on too long, and the revelation of the fate of the characters that the Skrulls had switched out is too convenient; despite that, this is much more Secret Wars I than Secret Wars II — I would guess that, to fans around the golden age of 12, the action, multiple characters and sprawling, earth-changing story make it one of the coolest superhero stories they’ve ever read.

Batman #682 — Writer: Grant Morrison;  Penciller: Lee Garbett;  Inker: Trevor Scott
This takes up the Bat-related events in Final Crisis, although whether it comes before, after or during the Batman: R.I.P. story is unclear (if it comes after, then that R.I.P. story turns out to have been a massive feint, right?). As a one-issue survey of the Bat’s history, it’s a neat little ride, but the last-page cliffhanger loses some impact, coming one week after the finale of R.I.P.; the whiplash is going to leave a lot of fans with sore necks.

Criminal #7 — Writer: Ed Brubaker;  Artist: Sean Phillips
Just another great issue of Brubaker and Phillips’s noir thriller, with twists, character revelations, fists, bullets, car crashes, and the requisite existentially angsty ending. It’s going on hiatus for a few months, while they do Incognito, a Sleeper-style series set in the Marvel universe (or is it? The promos aren’t clear, although it involves a super-villain and is being published through Marvel’s Icon line), but discerning readers will be ready to buy it again whenever this team chooses to produce more episodes; we don’t have so many dependably-entertaining books out there that we can afford to give up one like this.

Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #1 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Mike Mignola;  Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Speaking of dependably entertaining: after Richard Corben and Mignola himself have done recent mini-series with this character, it’s startling to realize how well Fegredo can hold his own with them; he’s developed into a very effective chronicler of the Big Red Demonic Cheese and his exploits. As a bonus, we’re back in current continuity, so the events here have more weight, and promidse to tie in with the looming apocalypse seen in B.P.R.P., the other book in Mignola’s chronicles of the Hellboyverse. As with Criminal, as long as he keeps producing ‘em, I’ll keep buying ‘em.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera #1 (of 6) — Writer: Kurt Busiek;  Artist: Jay Anacleto
It’s interesting how, with Alex Ross involved in Read the rest of this entry »