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eddycurrents · 5 years

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For the week of 21 January 2019

Quick Bits:

Aquaman #44 continues “Unspoken Water” from Kelly Sue DeConnick, Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles. This story feels a lot like some of the ‘80s DC reimaginings that came on the heels of Crisis on Infinite Earths, playing with the mythology in a new way while approaching the narrative from oblique angles. Definitely an interesting revelation about the people on the island. Rocha, Henriques, and Gho are probably doing some of the best art of their careers.

| Published by DC Comics

Avengers #13 gives us the origin of the 1 million BC Iron Fist from Jason Aaron, Andrea Sorrentino, Justin Ponsor, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit. The artwork from Sorrentino, Ponsor, and Arciniega is gorgeous, capturing some of the feel that David Aja brought to K’un-Lun in The Immortal Iron Fist.

| Published by Marvel

Batman #63 continues to attempt to break your brain as “Knightmares” continues with Mikel Janín and Jordie Bellaire joining Tom King and Clayton Cowles for the fun. This one gives another possible explanation for what’s going on as John Constantine warns Bruce and Selina of what’s going to happen in their domestic bliss.

| Published by DC Comics

Blossoms 666 #1 is kind of a slow-burn opener, intent on easing the reader into the surprises of this type of horror, which somewhat works against the back cover blurb and solicitation copy, but eh. Still, some great character work from Cullen Bunn building Cheryl and Jason. And the artwork from Lauren Braga and Matt Herms is perfect.

| Published by Archie Comics / Archie Horror

Cover #5 kind of sets us up for a conclusion next issue. Kind of. It’s more character building, anecdotes from comics conventions, and exploration of the art form through various means that has elevated the series from the beginning from Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack, Michael Avon Oeming, Zu Orzu, and Carlos Mangual. The Ninja Sword comic sequences this issue are particularly great.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

The Curse of Brimstone Annual #1 offers three stories, one focusing on Brimstone and two fleshing out adversaries Detritus and Wandering Jack. Great art throughout from Mike Perkins, Neil Edwards, John Stanisci, Denys Cowan, Donald Hudson, and Rain Beredo.

| Published by DC Comics

Crypt of Shadows #1 is one of the one-shot revivals of old titles for Marvel’s 80th anniversary from Al Ewing, Garry Brown, Stephen Green, Djibril Morissette-Pham, Chris O’Halloran, and Travis Lanham. It’s pretty great, presenting two short stories embedded in a framing narrative, reminiscent of the old horror anthologies.

| Published by Marvel

Die!Die!Die! #7 is more balls to the wall action and insanity from Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn, and Rus Wooton. It’s the battle between Lipshitz and Barnaby that has been building for a while now and, well, it’s violent, bloody, and brutal as you’d expect. Also, cats.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Freedom Fighters #2 is mostly some vague teasers of things to come and one giant, flashy fight sequence, but it’s an entertaining fight sequence. The art from Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Adriano Lucas really get to do the heavy lifting in this story and it shines.

| Published by DC Comics

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #2 proves that the first issue wasn’t a fluke, with Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard, and Travis Lanham providing another highly entertaining, very funny, beautifully illustrated story. Taylor captures Peter’s voice incredibly well.

| Published by Marvel

Go-Bots #3 jumps a bit in the narrative, with a team of astronauts aboard Spay-C discovering Gobotron, where a decidedly authoritarian Leader-1 is taking some draconian measures to keep the Guardians in line, while still fending off Cy-Kill and his minions. Tom Scioli keeps us off-balance a bit for what’s going on and it adds a nice tension to the story. Also, the locking mechanism for the prison cell is a nice touch of nostalgia.

| Published by IDW

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 is a great debut from Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Marte Gracia, and Cory Petit, setting up a new post-Infinity Wars Marvel cosmic standard. There’s a good deal of action and humour through this as Thanos’ wake leads to many of the cosmic “heroes” pledging a path to an odd bloodbath--with a large amount of Earth-based heroes as possible targets--and a heist of his body by the Black Order (who’ve also stolen Knowhere) before anything can get underway. This is probably one of the stranger “gathering of the team” stories, but it gets it out of the way in a fascinating manner to hit the ground running next issue. The art from Shaw and Gracia is suitably epic.

| Published by Marvel

Hardcore #2 has some very nice art from Alessandro Vitti and Adriano Lucas, as Drake finds he has his hands full with both Markus trying to fully take over the Hardcore program and the criminal organization he was trying to take down being on to him. Both trying to kill him. Lots of entertaining action in this one.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Hellboy and the BPRD: 1956 #3 brings up some interesting history questions for the Bureau and certain locations we already know about, as Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson’s script continues to dovetail some already existing knowledge of history.

| Published by Dark Horse

High Heaven #5 conclude season one of this series as well, leaving David exactly where he wished to be, but finding out it’s not necessarily what it’s cracked up to be. Tom Peyer, Greg Scott, Andy Troy, and Rob Steen have really been delivering a bitingly funny take on the afterlife here. Also another fun Hashtag: Danger short from Peyer and Chris Giarrusso. I’m glad that this one is going to be graduating to its own feature for Ahoy’s second wave of books. And the issue is rounded out by the usual prose stories and text pieces.

| Published by Ahoy

Immortal Hulk #12 is a tough one. Even as Hulk travels deeper into the heart of Hell and Al Ewing continues to wax philosophical in the narration about the nature of evil and the concept of the devil or an opposite to god in comparative religions, we get a hard look at Bruce’s upbringing and the abuse that he suffered at the hands of his father. It’s a difficult read as his father tries to justify his abusive actions, but it’s one hell of a character study. Great guest art on the flashbacks from Eric Nguyen to complement the main story’s art from regulars Joe Bennett and Ruy José, with colours from Paul Mounts. It’s astonishing the heights that this run is hitting, one of the best Marvel is publishing.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League #16 concludes “Escape from Hawkworld” from Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jim Cheung, Stephen Segovia, Mark Morales, Tomeu Morey, Wil Quintana, and Tom Napolitano. It’s very much a lore dump, with the Martian Keep telling J’onn about the multiverse before and of Perpetua, along with some interesting and complicated other revelations, but it’s rather interesting.

| Published by DC Comics

Livewire #2 sees Amanda captured, beaten, and mutilated by mercenary bigots at the behest of the US government to figure out a new way to control and neuter psiots. It’s always interesting that these people think they’re doing the “right thing” to justify their genocide. Very impressive artwork from Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín as always. Allén and Martín‘s choices for layouts, colours, even panel-styles lead to some very interesting visual storytelling.

| Published by Valiant

Low Road West #5 concludes the series, but leaves enough doors open for more somewhere down the line. This has been a very strange series, starting as a kind of post-America future and then tossing in some alternate reality weird western body horror stuff out there. All throughout with some inventive and unique artwork from Flaviano and Miquel Muerto.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Man Without Fear #4 presents us with the bedside manner of Kingpin from Jed MacKay, Paolo Villanelli, Andres Mossa, and Clayton Cowles. I really like Villanelli’s art here, which seems to be channelling the spirit of Chris Samnee.

| Published by Marvel

Naomi #1 is an incredibly beautiful comic. Jamal Campbell has really gone out of his way to craft a gorgeous first issue, perfectly balancing the ordinary, everyday people of Port Oswego, Oregon and the disruption caused by the superheroics of Superman bouncing through in a battle with Mongul. Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, Campbell, and Josh Reed have something interesting here, working at the fringes of the DC Universe from the perspective of ordinary people, and ordinary people not living in a Metropolis or Gotham at that.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Oliver #1 is an amazing debut from Gary Whitta, Darick Robertson, Diego Rodriguez, and Simon Bowland. It’s worth it alone just for Robertson and Rodriguez’s extremely beautiful, detailed artwork, bringing to life a bombed out, desolate London in stunning detail, but then the story hooks you. There’s a mystery to Oliver’s identity and lineage that pulls you in and the development of a society of an unwanted class of disposable clone soldiers is very compelling.

| Published by Image

Pearl #6 is a very interesting conclusion to the first arc from Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, and Joshua Reed. Great bits of comedy throughout what is otherwise a fairly heavy issue. Stunning artwork from Michael Gaydos.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

Quincredible #3 continues to build the world around Quin, as well as showing him learning through action, and finding out the complications of living in a fairly tight knit community where everyone knows everyone. The predicament that Rodney Barnes, Selina Espiritu, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Tom Napolitano leave us in is compelling and really develops well through the narrative.

| Published by Lion Forge / Roar / Catalyst Prime

The Spider King: Frostbite continues Hrolf’s adventures, now trying to cleanse the world of any remaining alien presence, in this one shot. The main story is a fun tale taking on another brand of infected creatures from the mini-series team of Josh Vann, Simon D’Armini, Adrian Bloch, and Chas! Pangburn. There’s also a back-up starring Sigrid taking no bullshit from Vann, Pangburn, and art by Daniel Irizarri.

| Published by IDW

Superior Spider-Man #2 is essentially an issue-long fight between Terrax and Octavius, but it’s rather entertaining, from Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Victor Olazaba, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles. The artwork is incredible throughout and there are some humorous cameos.

| Published by Marvel

Teen Titans #26 is the first of this series I’ve picked up, largely since in a few months it will be crossing over with Deathstroke, and it’s not bad. It seems intertwined with Red Hood (another title I’m not reading), but all of the necessary information seems to be being provided in the story, giving no problems with narrative flow. Adam Glass adds some very nice humour in the dialogue that keeps things snappy. The art from Bernard Chang and Marcelo Maiolo also nicely captures a youthful vibe.

| Published by DC Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #90 begins to pick up the pieces from the EPF’s assault on Burnow Island, as well as weaving in the bits and pieces from the recent macro-series, as the Turtles and the Mutanimals hold a wake for Slash. Great art from Michael Dialynas and Ronda Pattison.

| Published by IDW

X-O Manowar #23 begins “Hero” from Matt Kindt, Tomás Giorello, Diego Rodriguez, and Dave Sharpe. It’s largely set-up,--bringing back the bounty hunters who assaulted Aric previously, showing off Kate’s new ship in action against said bounty hunters, and then Aric wondering how he pees in the suit--, but it’s damn entertaining. Also, Giorello and Rodriguez practically put on a clinic for visual storytelling.

| Published by Valiant

Other Highlights: American Carnage #3, The Avant-Guards #1, The Beauty #26, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1, Cloak & Dagger: Negative Exposure #2, DuckTales #17, Exorsisters #4, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Silent Option #3, Grumble #3, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #6, Kaijumax: Season 4 #4, Lightstep #3, Lucifer #4, Mars Attacks #4, Monstress #19, Outcast #38, Regression #15, Rise of the TMNT #4, Road of the Dead: Highway to Hell #3, Shuri #4, StarCraft: Soldiers #1, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Terra Incognita #6, Star Wars #60, Sukeban Turbo #3, War is Hell #1, The Witcher: Of Flesh & Flame #2

Recommended Collections: Battlepug Compugdium, Black Panther - Book 6: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda Pt. 1, Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die, Coyotes - Volume 2, Daredevil - Volume 8: The Death of Daredevil, Jughead: The Hunger - Volume 2, Marvel Two-in-One - Volume 2: Next of Kin, Polar - Volume 1: Came from the Cold, The Problem of Susan & Other Stories, Proxima Centauri, X-O Manowar - Volume 6: Agent

d. emerson eddy did not eat the last piece of cherry pie. It was the cats, they’re trying to frame him.

#This Week in Comics

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