I want to share the comics I read on a weekly basis with you all, so this is going to be the first of four entries which details the comics I usually pick up every week. Some comics move around a bit and aren’t always released during the same week every month, but I will be discussing them on the week they are coming out this month (May). Consider what I have to say a mini review of the book since I started reading it.
WEEK 1
ACTION COMICS (DC), Grant Morrison and Rags Morales
Action Comics #9
I became a comic reader because of Superman. While he is no longer my favorite superhero, he was my first love and I always pick up ACTION COMICS… regardless of quality. Let’s face it, there have been a lot of bad Superman stories over the years, luckily ACTION has not been one of them since the DC relaunch last September.
While I have enjoyed this book overall since the start of the relaunch, Grant Morrison has been all over the place. But when has he not been? We got a bit of an interruption of the main arc for a while, but the book got back on track and wrapped the first arc last month with issue #8. I have loved the growth and development we have seen in Superman, both in terms of his powers and his role as a hero. We see a slightly lower powered Superman who is still discovering the full range and scope of his powers. He is very much a vigilante in the beginning of the series with an unsure and scared public not sure what to make of him. By then end of the arc we see Superman, the superhero emerge with a large part of the public behind him. I enjoyed seeing a Superman not as powerful and less in control of his abilities. He doesn’t know the full scope of his strength and speed, and has not discovered his ability to fly at first. By the end of the arc he has grown into and seen the range of some of his powers, but not others. Superman is tough, but not invulnerable. He can get knocked around quite a bit. I really liked how Morrison explained where his invulnerability comes from, but I won’t give that away here. One of the things I really like is the characterization of Lex Luthor. He hates Superman and refers to him as “it” and is out to turn everyone against the alien. We get a Luthor who is more scientist than businessman, similar to what we saw in the animated series in the 90′s. He is a combination of the mad scientist Luthor we saw in the bronze and silver age of comics and the more modern wealthy businessman we have seen in post-Crisis Superman comics. Another highlight of the book is how is how Superman doesn’t know the details of who he is and where he came in, and while he discovers bits and pieces of his origin, we don’t get yet another slightly rehashed version of his origin.
I don’t have a lot of bad things to say about this series. I already voiced my only major problem with it, which was Morrison interrupting the main arc briefly with something else. My only other complain would be the inconsistency of the art. Rags Morales has been great on art, but he has had to have some fill-ins and get assistance on a few issues.
ANIMAL MAN (DC), Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman
Animal Man #9
I had never read an Animal Man comic before the DC relaunch and I absolutely love this book. This is not a superhero book, even though the main character is a superhero and has super powers. This is a gory, creepy comic that is a slight bit of horror and a lot of monster. That dark twisted side of the comic only accounts for half of the story we are being told. The other half is about the relationship our hero Buddy Baker has with his family. If you haven’t read this comic, I strongly suggest getting the trade of the first arc when it comes out. There are a lot of WTF moments.
The only bad thing I would say about it would be the mullet that Buddy’s son has.
SWAMP THING (DC), Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette
Swamp Thing #9
Let me start by saying I LOVE Scott Snyder and his work just blows me away. SWAMP THING is a comic in which the characters and concepts seem to suit Scott perfectly. At its core, SWAMP THING is a monster comic and can go the horror route or the superhero route. Snyder takes us more down the horror route and ties in very closely to what is going on in ANIMAL MAN. While both of these comics take place in the larger DCU (We see Superman in issues #1), they seem isolated to their own little corner and Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder are left to play in it as they see fit. Both books share the same mythology and will crossover in the near future. Like most Snyder comics, psychology plays a big part in the story. This book is just as much about Alec Holland’s struggle against the green in an attempt to retain his humanity, as it is about the green versus the red. Paquette is brilliant on the art and his layouts and panel work is amazing and really adds to the feel of the book.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE (Vertigo), Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque
American Vampire #26
AMERICAN VAMPIRE tends to come out either the first week of the month or the last, but I will talk about it here. This is a creator owned series brought to us by Scott Snyder (see my comments on SWAMP THING, he is brilliant). AV tells us the story of the first “American” vampire, Skinner Sweet. While very much a villain, he is portrayed in a way which makes us want to love him and root for him. The various arcs cover different periods of time in the life of Skinner. We started in the 1920′s with the backup stories of the first arc telling us about his origin in the final days of the Wild West, and we saw old Las Vegas, WWII, and now the 50′s and 60′s. While AV is a horror comic, it is a character rich story with the same handful of character’s stories being told across the different time periods. At its core though, it is the story of Skinner, a product of the late nineteenth century American West trying to find his way in an increasingly modern world, more than it is a vampire story. The writing is full of brilliant cliffhangers and little threads being woven across arcs tying everything together. The main artist on the book is co-creator Rafael Albuquerque, whose style seems to fit the tone of the book perfectly. He takes some breaks and we see guest artists on some of the shorter arcs.
DETECTIVE COMICS (DC), Tony Salvadore Daniel
Detective Comics #9
I am first and foremost a Batman fan when it comes to comics. That being said, this is the biggest disappointment for me in the DC relaunch. Sure there are worse books, and even worse Batman comics, but DETECTIVE is one of DC’s biggest titles and they really dropped the ball by putting Tony Daniel on the book as both writer and artist. Daniel should not be writing, he is a horrible writer IMO, but DC has let him write and draw several Batman series now and the writing has been poor on all of them. How he got handed full control of one of their biggest titles in a relaunch is beyond me. While normally he is a decent artist, I think pulling double duty on this book as well as working on some others, has caused Daniel’s art to suffer as well. His art feels stiff, especially when he is drawing Batman in motion or fighting. The positions and poses the body is put in are unnatural and the movement defies physics and is very fake looking, even for comics.
Now back to the writing… I was excited about this book after reading #1 in September. The Joker had his face removed and the final page of the first issue being his surgically removed face hanging in front of us, Batman cliffhangers don’t get much better than that Other than being touched upon very briefly, we have not seen this get touched up again and we are at issue #9 now. This is the biggest cliffhanger I have seen not be delivered upon in 20 years of reading comics. I got less excited about this book with each issue that passed and we got further and further away from this cliffhanger. Now it is at the point where I don’t care what it was. That window has come and gone. The subsequent issues and arcs have been so poor, that I don’t trust Daniel to deliver on it in a way that will be worth the wait. How editorial let him get away with this blows my mind. He needs to be replaced as writer on this book, but since it is a Batman book, it is hard for sales to be factor in this happening. If this was not a book I “collected,” I would have dropped it long ago.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Marvel), Dan Slott and various
Amazing Spider-Man #685
I have always enjoyed Spider-Man as a cartoon series in the 90′s and some of the films, but never picked up the comics as a kid or an adult till this past fall when I jumped in towards the tail end of the Spider Island event. Luckily I have read enough friend’s comics and follow comics closely enough overall to have a thorough understanding of the history of the character. I love how Slott writes Spider-Man (even though I have no other experience with Spider-Man comics to compare to). He writes Spidey in a way that is fun and captures the spirit of how I always thought a Spider-Man comic should feel. Artists seem to change with the story arcs, but I will pick up this book as long as Slott writes it. It is just a fun superhero comic that does not try to do too much or pretend to be something it is not. If you love superhero comics, you will love this book.
DAREDEVIL (Marvel), Mark Waid and various
Daredevil #12
Just like with Spider-Man, I never read DAREDEVIL before picking up the latest incarnation of the series by Mark Waid. I love Waid’s writing. He is perfect at capturing the essence of characters that have been around for so long and are very established in who and what they are. I know that Daredevil can be a very dark comic at times and has been in the very recent past, but I love the positive spin Waid puts on the character. He plays with the semi-public knowledge of Dardevil’s secret identity in such a fun way. We get a very human and very flawed Superhero here. Daredevil has very human weaknesses, which we have seen in the form of beautiful women amongst some other things. This book bears a superhero’s name as its title and features Daredevil quite prominently, but it is not about Daredevil. This comic is about Matt Murdock, the blind attorney under the mask. What is perfect is that it tells his story without taking away from the crime-fighting superhero aspect of the book. You get your hero and his adventure but it is blended perfectly with an exploration of who and what Matt Murdock is. Waid seems to do this better than most and is something that he does with all the comics he writes. This is the best comic that Marvel is putting out there month after month.
AVENGERS vs. X-MEN (Marvel), various
Avenger vs. X-Men #3
I HATE Marvel events. I cannot name the last Marvel event that I enjoyed. I did not plan on picking this book up. I wanted to hate it, I swore I was not going to pick it up, then I got it for free. I started reading this book wanting to hate it, planning to hate it.. I LOVED this book, or at least the first 2 issues. It is hard to see where it is going and how it will end, but that is what I love about it. It is not your typical cookie cutter good vs bad Marvel event. There is no clear right or wrong side in this. People are taking sides and arguing about AvX online. This is everything Civil War wasn’t. You don’t know who is going to win, but you pick your side and you are rooting for them. I am pro X-men and I cannot wait to see how things turn out. I think it is going to bring some big changes to the Marvel Universe, which is something I think it is very much in need of. And no, you are not going to get me explaining why I am pro X-men in this. Pick up your copy of #1 and 2, and pick your side and let the arguing begin over who is going to win this and who deserves to win this.
Comicosity