Not a bad week, really. A good selection of pulp adventure, modern superhero and the odd bit of offbeat comedy.
Best of the Week – Batman # 14 by Tom King and Mitch Gerads.
Yes, it was super serious, a bit melodramatic and gushing a sort of noir romance that I don’t often go for but, jesus, was it beautiful. I haven’t followed up on my promise to sit down and get fully caught up on Sheriff of Babylon and this might be the inspiration to do so. Not so much Tom King’s script, I’m reading his run regularly but entirely absorbed by it to be honest, but the artwork here is completely beautiful. From the starry skied splash page to the haunting Batman silhouettes to the sublime curves of Catwoman rendered as well as anyone has done in recent memory. It’s simply gorgeous to look at.
I wonder if the story isn’t a deliberate reaction to the more blatantly exploitive love scene we saw in the New 52 between these characters. Is this Tom King showing us how it should be done, in a sensuously mature manner, rather than a raunchy grab for sensationalism that, let’s face it, was in no shortage in the New 52. If so, I applaud. If DC is saying it’s time to put that mess behind us and move on, I am utterly onboard and delighted.
Recommended this week:
U.S.Avengers # 1 – Albeit a somewhat by the numbers introductory team-book issue, I loved the message that was being sent – inclusion, an America undaunted my messages of hate, unified in it’s diversity and willing to fight for those freedoms and principles in the face of growing discrimination and fear. So very appropriate to our current times and I’m impressed that the folks at Marvel were willing to make such a bold, unsubtle statement. Good for them. Worth reading for that fact alone but also intriguing, well drawn, with new characters who show potential. Though, the one-hour Hulk does seem a bit annoying.
Flintstones # 7 – The book that continues to sit atop the monthly must read list. I was disappointed to see Steve Pugh missing but, wow, Rick Leonardi? Incredible fill in job from a name from the distant past who, frankly, I didn’t expect much from. I almost felt guilty at then end when I saw how well he had handled to art chores on the issue.
Moon Knight # 10 – No fucking clue what’s going on but, again, so gorgeous to look at. Some of the bast art in any monthly series on display in this book issue after issue.
Midnighter and Appollo # 4 – Time to admit, Steve Orlando’s Midnighter is the most delightfully deadly character in comics at the moment. Wolverine, Batman, all of them. Sit down and take ass-kicking lessons from this guy asap and stop boring the shit out of us. Yes, he head-butted a bullet through and enemy’s skull. This is what I’m talking about. Let’s go.
Crap of the Week:
Champions # 4 – I wanted to like this book. I like Mark Waid. I’m all for a young team book. I loved the original Champions (tenuous reason at best I know). But it’s awful. I cannot overstate how much I despise the lazy, absurd style Humberto Ramos has cultivated. But it’s more than that. What the fuck was this story even about? Entangled with random Atlanteans in the middle of the ocean, contrived drama and action with little point and no satisfying conclusion. Just lazy, hack comics. Sorry.
My Mongrel Soul 