I don’t seem to be catching up on my weekly reading at all. This is a bit concerning – I’ve never been unable to keep up with my weekly stack, but life has been insane. So, here are my thoughts on some not-so-fresh new releases…
Best Comic of the Fortnight:
Spectregraph #1 – James Tynion IV has been on a real tear the last few years, and he looks to be continuing his streak with this new DSTLRY collaboration with artist Christian Ward. Janie is a pretty bad real estate agent, and maybe a worse mother. She’s on her way to show a massive house outside of Malibu to some clients, and in her rush (she’s always late), she manages to forget her infant son at home in his high chair. She’s hoping to wrap up this deal quickly and get home, but when she meets the clients’ representative, and they enter the strange house, filled with clockwork movements and hard to understand rooms, things take a turn. Tynion does a good job of setting up this character and the oddity of this situation, starting the book with some flashback scenes involving the occult. He’s really good at this kind of horror set-up, as we’ve seen recently in W0rldtr33 and The Deviant. Ward is an interesting choice of artist. Usually his work is very psychedelic, so to see him working on something that feels more grounded at first seems like a wasted opportunity, but I’m confident that things are going to keep getting stranger and move into the realm where he does his best work. He has gotten very good at dialogue moments too though. I love the way DSTLRY is blessing us with these fantastic comics lately.
Quick Takes:
The Avengers #13 – The team continues their fight against Orchis, who is being led by a former colleague of theirs in this endeavor. This is a suitable action issue, that doesn’t have a lot of space for character moments. I do like how things are left with the 3D Man, but find it hard to believe that the span between Fall of the House of X and Blood Hunt is only a matter of days. Life moves fast in the Marvel Universe. Of course, that means it’s going to be a while before we see any character work for anyone on this team, half of whom don’t have their own books.
Blood Hunt #1 – I guess it’s summer time, as the Jed MacKay corner of the Marvel Universe (he writes Avengers, Moon Knight, and Doctor Strange) comes together for this year’s big event. Something has made all Darkforce users kind of explode, blocking out the sun, and now vampires, in the thousands, are coming out of everywhere and attacking people. The heroes of the world are quickly overrun, and so the Avengers retreat to the Impossible City to plan, but are attacked by the third team of odd villains they’ve faced since MacKay started writing their book. There’s a last-page reveal that I saw didn’t go over too well on the internet, and while I don’t think I like it either, I’m reserving judgement for a while still. Pepe Larraz’s art is very nice in this book, and the blockbuster energy is right. I’ll read a little more before deciding how I feel about it. I am only going to be grabbing the tie-in issues that affect titles I’m already reading; I think the ancillary books all look very skippable.
Daredevil #8 – I’m not sure this needed to be such a big and expensive issue, but I did enjoy the main story here, which has Matt and Elektra attempting to take on The Heat, the new gang operating in Hell’s Kitchen. I wasn’t all that excited to learn who is behind the gang, given that I have been enjoying that character’s more recent status quo. Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder are doing fine work on this book, and are managing following up on one of the best DD runs of all time quite well. Some of the backup stories in this issue were decent, but I don’t know why we needed the Punisher story set in DD’s black armor era. I think it says something that I didn’t really notice that 16 pages were missing from this book, aside from wondering why the cover gallery cut off when it did.
Dune: House Corrino #2 – More and more schemes pile up on each other as this third Dune series gets underway. If I’m being honest, it’s a little hard to follow all of the various plots, plans, and intended betrayals. Now that I’ve seen the second Dune movie, I can’t escape thinking about how unnecessary these prequel stories are, in that they don’t really advance any of Frank Herbert’s main themes.
The Flash #8 – Simon Spurrier’s Flash story is getting increasingly chaotic, as Wally remains missing, and Barry is running around the globe dealing with strange happenings, with a variety of heroes pitching in. Amanda Waller turns up (I suspect this is going to be a thing for the next few months), and tries to shut down a broadcast that Iris is giving. Ramón Pérez’s art is nice in this issue, but I do prefer the work that Mike Deodato was doing on this book. Spurrier has a lot happening right now, and some of it is very strange, but I like it.
Green Arrow #11 – I found this issue kind of strange, as the middle section of it is a recap of Merlyn’s history, showcasing a pretty basic reason for being Ollie’s biggest nemesis. I’ve been enjoying this title, but it suddenly feels like Joshua Williamson is rushing things a little to line things up with this Absolute Power event that’s coming up. Having three artists muddies things a little, but I do like seeing Phil Hester handle the flashback sequence.
If You Find This, I’m Already Dead #3 – I didn’t realize that this series was going to end with this issue. Matt Kindt and Dan McDaid have given us a really interesting look at an alien world, as seen through the eyes of a journalist who was, we learned, sent not just to report on things. It’s a clever take on a familiar story, with elements of Apocalypse Now. I liked it.
The Penguin #9 – Oswald puts his plan into action, which involves having his people blow up a number of locations around Gotham in an effort to direct Batman towards his children. I continue to really enjoy this series and the work that Tom King and Rafael De Latorre are putting into this book. I am still really thrown by the inclusion of James Gordon as the commissioner though, as every other aspect of this series fits with current continuity. I’m not sure why a change like this is being allowed, especially since Gordon isn’t all that important to the story. It really bugs me.
Predator: The Last Hunt #3 – I don’t think I’d realized that this Predator miniseries is only going to be four issues long – it seems that Marvel might be starting to shrink the size of their trades even further in the near-future. This series has been good, tying the world that Ed Brisson has been writing about into the earliest of the Dark Horse Predator comics, creating a bit of a shared universe for them. Theta is not in a good place at the end of this issue, and I’m not sure if Brisson is going to just take everyone out in his last issue (I figure it’s called The Last Hunt for a reason).
The Six Fingers #3 – A lot of stuff gets clarified in this issue, which has Johannes starting to fully piece together what is happening to him, and learn some of the secrets behind the One Hand killings. This book is a companion to the One Hand title, which has a different writer, and it’s really interesting to see how they fit together. Originally, I was only going to read that title, as I’ve become a huge fan of writer Ram V, but this series is making me appreciate his collaborator, Dan Watters, more than I did before. I like how artist Sumit Kumar makes the city feel different than how it’s portrayed in the other book, suggesting that each main character’s perceptions of things are different.
Vampirella #667 – I’m continuing to catch up on the latest iteration of Priest’s Vampirella. He’s got our hero trapped in a kind of Groundhog Day scenario, slowly figuring out what’s happening (although Victory gets there a little quicker than her). This is a solid issue (I’m so happy to see Ergün Gündüz back on this book), but one that would make little sense to someone who hasn’t been reading Priest’s run all along.
Vampirella #668 – I think I’m all caught up now, although it’s hard to tell with the way this series keeps repeating the same scenes over and over again, as Vampirella continues to work out that she’s trapped in a loop of sorts. I always admire the way Priest plots out challenging stories like this, but I’m ready to see more forward movement with this story.
Wolverine #48 – As we move closer to the end of the Sabretooth War, things are getting a little 90s (check out Logan’s new armor). I feel like this may have teetered into an unrecoverable space, and the fact that this all takes place before FotHoX and RotPoX makes it clear that Logan’s not going to be without his healing factor for long. I feel like Ben Percy and Victor LaValle cut themselves off at the knees with this one.
X-Men Forever #2 – All of this Fall of the House of X stuff is getting a little confusing, as Kieron Gillen tries to resolve a number of ongoing storylines for a large number of characters, and advance the larger plot of the Rise of the Powers of X series, while also kind of giving this book its own feel. Basically, he’s continuing Immortal X-Men here, showing what is happening in the White Hot Room while RotPoX is happening. Rachel and the others prepare to save the day, which involves resurrecting Sinister and every other dead X-Man. I like how Gillen writes these characters, so I did really enjoy a lot of this, while also acknowledging that it’s a mess. I said in my last column that the character I most want to stick around in some form after the Krakoan Era ends is Exodus; he really is the most interesting character in any of Gillen’s X-books, even though he doesn’t get a lot of screen time.
The Fortnight in Music:
Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace – The flute is having quite a moment this year, as is gentle music. Shabaka Hutchings, the epicentre of London’s jazz scene, has put out his first solo album (he’s in the groups Shabaka & The Ancestors, Sons of Kemet, and The Comet Is Coming, as well as turning up just about everywhere lately, including the most recent Armand Hammer album). In this, he eschews the saxophone for the flute and other wind instruments. Like Andre 3000’s record, Shabaka constructs soft grooves, but this is a lot more experimental than Andre’s, and he makes larger use of guest vocalists like Moses Sumney, and two of my favourite people, the poet Saul Williams and the rapper E L U C I D. Other musicians that appear here include harpist Brandee Younger, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and the ubiquitous Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. It’s interesting that even on a solo record, Shabaka creates and leans on his community. This album is in the running for my top five list this year, and I really do love it.
Julia Holter – Something In The Room She Moves – I’ve only just come to listen to Julia Holter, who mixes her work on keyboards and synths with her off-kilter and otherworldly vocals. This album is often beautiful, but also more than a little weird. A lot of people whose tastes I trust love her, and I’m starting to see why, although I don’t entirely ‘get it’ yet.
