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eddycurrents · 7 years

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For the week of 18 September 2017

Two favourites this week: Angelic #1 by Si Spurrier and Caspar Wijngaard, published by Image, and Bloodshot Salvation #1 by Jeff Lemire, Lewis LaRosa, and Mico Suayan, published by Valiant.

Angelic #1 is an odd creature. Set in a world where humans have disappeared, but left behind a legacy of augmented animals constructed for a war we’re not in the loop for, it’s an intriguing premise.

The artwork, though, is the true star of this debut. Caspar Wijngaard breathes beautiful life into the absurdity of the augment animals and the world they inhabit, filled with relics of human civilization that have fallen into disrepair. He also utilizes a kind of pastel colour scheme, based largely around the blues and purples of our protagonist Qora’s fur, that adds an ethereal “otherness” to the art, reminding us that this isn’t quite our world.

Through the point of view of Qora, a young girlmonk, we’re introduced to this world and the winged monkeys’ society. It’s very patriarchal, largely reducing adult females to broodmares, following traditions and practices supposedly handed down from the Makers without question. Naturally, Qora doesn’t want to follow the traditions, wants to help defend her people in combat like the males, and wants to question why they do anything the way they do, much to the chagrin of the pack’s elders. Si Spurrier uses the setting both as a way into the alien nature of this future, as well as an interesting commentary on some of the trappings of our own society at times.

As Qora rankles against authority, she goes beyond the protection of her roost and gets embroiled in the dangers beyond including confronting a Fazecat, being attacked by another pod of Dolts, and then finally coming face to face with what seems to be the nemesis of the winged monkey colonies, the Mans. I’m very interested to see where this goes in the next issue and beyond.

Bloodshot Salvation is off to a great start.

I loved Jeff Lemire’s previous work on Bloodshot Reborn and Bloodshot USA, and it comes as no surprise that he continues to produce a compelling story in this new incarnation. This first issue splits the narrative into two timeframes, one dealing with Bloodshot’s attempt at domestic bliss as Ray Garrison raising his newborn daughter, Jessie, with Magic and the other seeing Magic and Jessie at some point in the future, running for their lives.

The present sequence allows Lemire to play to one of his strengths, family. Some of his best work, including Essex County, Animal Man, and Royal City, focuses on different family dynamics and that really comes to the fore as Ray tries his best at being a good family man. It also allows Bloodhound to steal some of the spotlight as they navigate a humorous sequence of discovering that Jessie’s diaper needs to be changed. There’s also a kind of introduction to Magic’s father and the start of something new from the ashes of Project Rising Spirit, Project Omen, that feeds into the future sequences. It’s agents of this Project Omen that seem to be dogging Magic and Jessie in the future.

Splitting the art chores are Lewis LaRosa and Mico Suayan. LaRosa taking the present and Suayan the future, and the book overall looks gorgeous. I’d also really love to see a one shot from LaRosa just focusing on Bloodhound.

Quick Bits:

All-New Guardians of Galaxy #10 sees Rael confront the grand parade of lifeless packaging while trying to figure out those tricky erogenous zones.

Or not. This volume of Guardians of the Galaxy has been taking a kind of wide meandering route in order to get here in its main plot starting in the first issue, but Gerry Duggan finally brings the pieces together to set an even broader cosmic quest for the Guardians. It also throws out some explicit in-universe acknowledgement that some universal change has happened.

| Published by Marvel

Avengers #11 is one of those quiet, character-driven stories that come after big events, transitioning from the end of Secret Empire and the dissolution of Parker Industries in ASM, to what’s to come next as part of Marvel Legacy.

| Published by Marvel

Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack #1 is fun. Even if for some bizarre reason you’ve never seen Big Trouble in Little China this is enjoyable. John Carpenter teams up with Borderlands-writer, Anthony Burch, for this series and it captures both the weird-funny of Carpenter and some of the more social more-based humour that Burch tends to work into his writing, made particularly clear in the level of hell that is the “Hell for Dudes who Creep on Women”.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Critical Role: Vox Machina - Origins #1 is a digital-first comics adaptation of Geek & Sundry’s podcast/stream of Critical Role, a D&D campaign DM’ed by Matt Mercer with an all-star cast of voice actors. It’s definitely different seeing the characters starting out in this form, and naturally has to drop the Dungeons & Dragons-specific setting, but it’s still an enjoyable fantasy story. Matthew Colville manages nicely to capture the humour and atmosphere of the web series and sets up an interesting mystery to begin with. The artwork from Olivia Samson is great.

| Published by Dark Horse

Dark Ark #1 is a killer concept. It sets up another ark in the Biblical Deluge, one carrying all of the beasts from the unnatural or supernatural world, including unicorns, manticores, vampires, etc. Naturally, “evil” creatures can’t seem to get along for long and it looks like bloodshed is about to break out. Cullen Bunn and Juan Doe do a really great job setting up this one. I’m excited to see what comes next.

| Published by Aftershock

Doctor Strange #25 is a single-issue story from John Barber split into past and present sequences illustrated by Kevin Nowlan and Juan Frigeri respectively. It’s very nice to see Nowlan do some interior Strange art, even if the veritable legion of inkers make it a bit distracting. The art from Frigeri is also very nice. I know that you could argue that with Donny Cates and Gabriel Hernandez Walta starting their run after the next issue, this could be considered as inconsequential, but it still deals with some of the ramifications of the change of nature in how Marvel’s magic works and how Strange has grown as a person, so it is still an enjoyable story in its own right.

| Published by Marvel

Gasolina #1 is probably going to be airing on Amazon in the not too distant future. That’s not to say that it’s definitely going to be one of the properties put forward for the “television” deal, but it certainly feels like the kind of thing that’s going to make its way to some kind of mass media.

It’s decent, but I’m not quite sold on it yet. The art from Niko Walter is very good, often dark, but a little more natural here than on Demonic, probably because Mat Lopes is using a brighter, more expansive colour scheme. It reminds me even more of the style that Paul Azaceta has adopted for Outcast.

Sean Mackiewicz’ story, though, I like it, but I feel like I need more. That’s both good and bad. The characters are introduced, a plot is given in regards to a missing child, and there’s a kind of resolution to the end of the issue--which is actually kind of impressive and appreciated that there is a “complete” story in a fashion--but the overall hook isn’t really there yet. There’s something about bugs and weird creatures, odd deaths, but it seems like it’s skirting the story rather than drawing me in. I’ll still give the series a bit to grow on me, but it hasn’t grabbed me entirely.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Generations: The Marvels #1 features some really nice art from Paolo Villanelli with colours by Ian Herring that give the art a dated period feel to it. Sending Kamala Khan back into what is more likely the ‘70s feels a bit weird, though, given that Marvel tends to use a sliding scale for the timeline. It does manage to make the Generations event feel even weirder with what little explanation we’ve seen and in comparison to the other books.

| Published by Marvel

Half Past Danger 2: Dead to Reichs #1 is good old-fashioned Rocketeer-style adventure fun. The artwork from Stephen Mooney is absolutely beautiful.

| Published by IDW

Jean Grey #7 is weird. Continuing Young Jean’s story of self-discovery in order to prevent the coming of the Phoenix, this issue features a guest appearance by Scarlet Witch, giving more advice to Jean in hope to cope, but at the same time the spirit haunting her, ostensibly Old Jean, gets more frustrated. What’s weird is that, to me at least, Old Jean doesn’t really seem like Old Jean. Something just seems to be off. I don’t know if that’s Dennis Hopeless’ intent, we’ll probably see in future issues, but I’m not sure if Old Jean is really Old Jean.

What isn’t weird is that Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque’s art is great to see here. He’s got a nice angular style that reminds me a bit of a refined Adam Pollina and it perfectly fits the tone of the book.

| Published by Marvel

Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Star Wars: Captain Phasma #2 is every bit as beautiful as the first issue, possibly more so. This is just absolutely beautiful artwork from Marco Checchetto and Andres Mossa. The story also takes an interesting turn fleshing out the Stormtrooper aiding Phasma in her quest to track down Rivas and expanding a new world and its inhabitants in the SW canon.

| Published by Marvel

Kill the Minotaur #4 sees both an origin of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur as well as a confrontation between our erstwhile band of “heroes” and the beast. Theseus is still a complete asshole.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Killer Instinct #1 was interesting. I know nothing about the video game, have never played it, but was drawn to this by Ian Edginton as the writer. It’s not bad. Basically following some sort of cataclysmic battle with a profound evil, the world is left ruined with roving bands of monsters and marauders. The art from Cam Adams is also pretty good.

| Published by Dynamite

Misfit City #5 continues to be a fun adventure story like The Goonies but with a mostly girl cast. We get more advancement on the treasure hunt and some exposition on Mary and her ship.

| Published by BOOM! Entertainment / Boom! Box

Royals #8 brings to a conclusion this leg of the Inhumans’ quest for Terrigen and the Universal Inhumans visit. Overall, the story and art have been great, but this issue the flashbacks are a bit weird. The old, old Inhumans costume designs are used and it’s strange. While the caption says “months ago”, the costumes suggest before New Atillan was even a thing.

| Published by Marvel

Secret Weapons #4 concludes this very excellent series that introduced us to a new set of players in the Valiant universe. The artwork from the team of Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín has been nothing short of the expected phenomenal, at times bordering on brilliant on how page layouts and panel compositions are constructed. While Eric Heisserer’s story is certainly no slouch either, it makes me wonder if I’m going to enjoy Secret Weapons #0 as much without this art team.

| Published by Valiant

Star Wars: Poe Dameron #19 makes me think that somehow Angel Unzueta has managed to level up his art again. Since starting on this series, his art has just been getting better and better and I swear that this “War Stories” arc is just next level. Part of it is decidedly the excellent colour work from Arif Prianto, but this is just gorgeous work.

| Published by Marvel

Unholy Grail #3 continues one of the stranger retellings of the Arthurian legend. Cullen Bunn has recast the story as a horror and it takes another tragic turn this issue with the wedding of Arthur and Guinevere. As usual, the artwork from Mirko Colak is a delight.

| Published by Aftershock

Other Highlights: Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #4, Black Hammer #13, Black Eyed Kids #14, Dept. H. #18, Descender #24, Generation Gone #3, GI Joe: First Strike #1, Glitterbomb: The Fame Game #1, Go Go Power Rangers #3, Head Lopper #7, Horizon #14, The Librarians #1, Luke Cage #5, Magnus #4, Micronauts: Wrath of Karza #5, Mirror #8, Monsters Unleashed #6, Night’s Dominion: Season Two #2, Savage Town, Shirtless Bear Fighter #4, Son of Shaolin, Star Trek: Boldly Go #11, Star Wars Annual #3, Star Wars Adventures #2, The Totally Awesome Hulk #23, The Unsound #4, US Avengers #10, Venomverse #3, Violent Love #8, Wayward #23, World of Animosity #1

Recommended Collections: East of West - Vol. 7, The End League - Library Edition, Jeff Steinberg, The Last Days of American Crime, Moon Knight - Vol. 3: Birth & Death, Power Man & Iron Fist - Vol. 3: Street Magic, Reggie & Me, Sons of the Devil - Vol. 3

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