1. "Strange Adventures" by Paul Pope. Seriously, I think it's this close between "Strange Adventures," "Deadman," "Wonder Woman" and maybe "Batman" this week. I don't think I can express how arbitrary it seems now having to choose between Pope's awesome depiction of Dr. Fate and the equally awesome splash page in "Deadman." I'll put Pope ahead this time because he mentions because he manages to combine two DC B-icons who seem to belong in different stratospheres--one being the pulp space adventurer Adam Strange and the other being the beloved Lovecraftian magic hero Dr. Fate in a way that makes sense. As Dr. Fate mentions, they are both archaeologists. I hadn't even thought about this before (to be honest, I know very little about both characters), but it gives Pope a perfect and perfectly logical opportunity to throw the two together in the best DC tradition. I'm not sure if the two actually meet--it seems to be playing on what Pope was doing last week in questioning if the adventures of "Adam Strange" are really the delusions of an excitable archaeologist--but Dr. Fate does give Strange some crucial information via dreams. Pope's visual depiction of Fate is ridiculously good, in that you can see that there exists a regular looking man underneath the cool helmet. More bonus points go to Pope for his "Black Dog of Fear!!" which doesn't really get followed upon yet. As hoary as the concept generally is of the protagonist finding crucial plot devices via dreams, Pope makes me excited to see Adam Strange suit up again.
2. "Deadman" by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. Nobody does it better than Bullock, making dynamic splash pages that seem worthy of being placed on one's wall but at the same time advance a satisfactory lot of plot details and intrigue. More than previous issues, this strip eschews common panel borders and makes novel use of space in other, more interesting ways, with floating talking heads relating the plot, surrounding the evil blood-soaked demon that likes flaying the flesh of women. The central image is amongst the most brutal and disturbing we have yet seen from Wednesday Comics, incongruous given our association with Bullock's style and various DC animated series. I love how you still get Deadman's ridiculous white-D underneath his disembodied head, as do I love the way the blood gets thicker and closer in the composition as you move your eye down the page. "Deadman" has at this point I think cemented its reputation as the most underrated, if not the best comic in Wednesday Comics, and it would take a lot of energy for Bullock and Heuck to knock it off that perch. For the first time in my life, I wonder why Boston Brand can't carry his own series. He's the kind of affable everyman that seems to abound in the Marvel universe but has less of a place in DC.
3. "Wonder Woman" by Ben Caldwell. In which Caldwell throws us back into the story with these immortal words by Etta Candy: "I had this rawsome dream...with a giant lollipop an'--what happened?" If part of the success of Wednesday Comics can be measured by the means in which these creators are able to distill the mythology of their subject matter in a way that suggests the superiority of a new brand of creator-owned continuity, then I think Wonder Woman is doing us the greatest service by throwing together basically all of WW's best-known villains, sidekicks, and gadgets. It has always been hard to get excited by Cheetah and Dr. Poison (let alone Wonder Woman herself), but by placing them in a larger and more thoughtful narrative, removing complications and discrepancies in the same way that many comic book movies do, we can finally see them for the potentially fiendish protagonists that they are. This is all secondary, however, compared to Caldwell's immense growth as an artist as this series has progressed. Certainly, no one save for maybe Kerschl has tried so man new things, and made such novel use of space. Last week, I mentioned how Caldwell has managed to write a script that has us looking downward as opposed to rightward, and he does the same thing this week, and it seems to work even better this time. The plot elements seem to be coming together, the endings are getting less repetitive, and I think people will be surprised how good this strip is once it is collected in trade form.
4. "Batman" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. Surprisingly, Risso tries the same downward momentum trick as Caldwell, although with only a fraction of the content that Caldwell manages to pack into every page (which according to nearly every Wednesday Comics fan is a bad thing--the same kind of people that bitch that movies are too long these days, as if they want to spend more money for less entertainment). Not that I am accusing anyone of copying, as Risso clearly has his own brilliant style, which unfortunately hasn't afforded many straight-ahead shots of Batman yet. Instead, Risso likes to focus on some sort of small object, particularly in free-fall, as he does so here. One half of the page shows Batman torturing a henchman by threatening to drop broken glass on his neck; the other half of the page shows Batman doing someting similar, only this time it's a cigarette butt to the eye. It's not like you can really tell what's going on at this point (or why a guy would hold on to his ciarette for this long). Just some more Azzarello noir stuff, at it's core. As is often the case with noir, what seems to be sort of pedestrian and mundane at first becomes endlessly fascinating at the end (this was surely often the case with 100 Bullets). I would never underestimate this team's capacity to surprise me.
5. "Flash Comics" by Karl Kerschl and Breandan Fletcher. As if you didn't think the game could change anymore (or that all this time travel stuff could get more confusing), Kerschl and Co. combine the "Flash" and "Iris West" strips into one linear whole, the only difference being marked by the benday dots used in the latter. Kerschl has been hinting that all these disconnected strips add up to a gloriously complicated paradox of sorts, but he hasn't really given us the keys to understanding how exactly this is going to flow, yet. All I know is that it involves Gorilla Grodd capturing the Flash's speed powers to go back in time and take over the world, and meanwhile Barry and Iris have a falling out, compounded by the fact that Flashes from the future keep trying to come back and fix things. Seriously, the Flash should consider not doing that in the future. I quasi-predicted that this would lead to "Sound of Thunder" type material, and the end of this strip seems to suggest I'm right. Still, a terrifying smiling monkey at a bar (drinking three glasses of wine simultaneously, no less) is a good way to get anyone's attention. Will this all add up someday? It doesn't have to, actually, but I bet it will. My suggestion to Kerschl and Fletcher is to not try too hard.
6. "Metamorpho, the Elemant Man" by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred. I can only reframe my expectations for this strip so many times, which I guess is a good thing, even if we haven't seen much instance of Gaiman playing with audience expectations like this in the past. Is this a straight-ahead superhero story? Is it a joke? Is it some sort of postmodern metacommentary? And when will we know, exactly? This issue errs closer on the linear story format, although we get a few cues from Java that we are still in arch-joke territory. And really, with Allred on art, you have even less of an idea of what we are reading is genuine or mocking postmodern pastiche. Perhaps Gaiman would argue that I am thinking too hard. We get to meet Algon, the original Element Man, who speaks some sundry words in Latin. He's not important What is up with Java, though? Is he the secret hero at the heart of this? Is he the one whose machinations are attempting to destroy the rest of the team? Again, it may be a joke. I'm more than willing to go along for the ride--for now.
7. "Metal Men" by Dan DiDio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan. Now this I can tell is definitely a joke. Not that I'd expect anything less from any Metal Men book (of which there are apparently two now--how cool is that?). Chemo, the gigantic toxic thing, just tore the roof off a bank, if you'll recall. The Metal Men are apparently less equipped to stop them as I thought, given that they may not be organic but are still made of metal susceptible to the kind of corrosive liquids Chemo likes to burp out. Tin finds this out the hard way, which is fine with me, as he has always been my least favorite Metal Man, except for platinum. I think other people have commented that this is one of the most normal-looking strips in the entire project, and it's certainly something one could imagine being broken-down into an 8 12 x 10 format. Still, this is a fun comic that allows me to entertain my fantasy of having the Metal Men actually go up against a supervillain by their lonesome, as opposed to getting Lead to cover Superman so he can punch through Metallo's heart. Good for DiDio, getting this out there. Maybe he should write more.
8. "Hawkman" by Kyle Baker. Apparently the little guy with the huge glasses who barely made it out of th plane crash last issue is actually a girl. I apologize for such a base and disgusting inaccuracy; the glasses really fooled me. This continues to bee a really good-looking comic, with Baker's Hawkman in particular in the running for most definitive-looking in a long time. The story has sort of slowed to a halt, as apparently all the Justice League is dispatched to fight the remaining alien invaders, and without his wings, Hawkman is pretty much a lame duck. I can only imagine that the new course this strip has taken (Hawkman without wings on Dinosaur Island!) is a way of getting at the beauty of the character deprived of his source of power, which if you think about it is a pretty week power to begin with (did he lose his mace and sword too? I don't remember). Part of the reason I like this comic so much is that I've always had a soft spot for the character, and always thought he should be more than a peripheral force in the Justice League (and why he keeps getting relegated to the Justice Society, I don't know). Sure, he's an alien with a mace that can fly, which doesn't seem that useful, but I imagine him performing a similar function as Wolverine: throw legions of minor bad guys at him and he can take them all, and send him on stealth missions in space. And the less of this Egyptian stuff, probably the better.
9. "Sgt. Rock and Easy Co." by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert. "Sgt. Rock" continues to get the award for "best-looking comic where nothing really happens), or it did until this week, when finally Sgt. Rock is freed from his chair by one of those good Nazis one hears about occasionally. Joe Kubert keeps it minimal, not adding much depth to the backgrounds but focusing instead on the faces of Sgt. Rock (bruised and welty) and his savior Gustav (old, balding). Just as we are about to see some Sgt. Rock action, we cut ("Nearby, a shadowy furtive group emerges from the torn ground") to Easy Co. battling a grenade that looks like a potato. Of course, now that Rock's free, does he really need these guys? For a comic that's going at a snail's pace, this is still pretty enjoyable and fun. I can't imagine Joe Kubert doing anything less than churning out great-looking, consistent pop art.
10. "The Demon and Catwoman" by Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze. Maybe my problem with this comic is that I've been made apprehensive by the fact that a solo Demon series always needs to involve Morgaine Le Fay in some ways. I get that this is a Kirby creation and Jason Blood's Arthurian roots are part of the bargain, but how often does this lady need to keep coming up? And while we're at it, there are a few rather large plot holes here. Can Le Fay turn Etrigan back into Jason Blood any time she wants too? If so, why not earlier? How did Catwoman turn back to normal? While Jason Blood may not be Etrigan, he still has a few magic powers at his disposal, some of which he probably doesn't need to talk in order to use. This comic is at least beginning to look better, however, as I get more used to Stelfreeze's style. Still, I am disappointed that Etrigan and Jason Blood are so easy taken down by a woman who he must have fought thousands of times at this point.
11. "Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth!" by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook. This issue of "Kamandi" seems a bit more dry than what we have been used to lately. Whereas in Wonder Woman it seems like Ben Caldwell mixes and matches all of Wonder Woman's best elements to point towards something new, Gibbons is basically throwing out Kirby tropes to the point of banality, and even Ryan Sook, as good as he is, can't disguise the fact that nothing is really happening this time around. I could have easily predicted the money shot image, of the Tiger Legion walking away defeated, given that it seems like the Tiger Legion are always being beaten (maybe it's Gorilla Grodd's doing). I also find myself not very interested in this new girl that pops up, although maybe that will change. Right now, I want to see more of Kamandi and Dr. Canus doing their thing, and less of them copying note for note the episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold when he went to the future. I feel as if I am being inconsistent in praising some books for their adherence to previous mythology, while in other books it seems banal; maybe I am completely wrong.
12. "Superman" by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo. Something does happen in this strip (Superman gets punched in the face), and really, that's all we need to see at this point. I'm confused at what these aliens are doing at this point, but they seem to be able to read minds. And are there two of them now? Should I remember what's supposed to be happening? After weeks and weeks of a forlorn Clark Kent walking around Smallville, I suppose this is supposed to be the payoff, but I'd almost rather they kept doing what they were doing before. There's not much to excite me here, as there used to be, and I imagine that the next five weeks are going to be devoted to a lot of punching. Oh well. And meanwhile, Caldwell manages to work in plenty of punching on his own time, in addition to everything else.
13. "Supergirl" by Jimmi Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. Who didn't see this coming? Aquaman can't help Supergirl out with their unruly pets, because he can only talk to fish. Duh. It's as if this entire Aquaman subplot is being used to waste a few weeks' worth of time so that the whole conclusion of the Krypto-Streaky saga doesn't seem drawn out. A lot of the people like the depiction of Aquaman here, but I dunno...I'm not the kind of guy who bitches about a lack of seriousness in the depictions of my favorite superheroes, but Aquaman's dialogue here is just completely cringe-worthy. The "Aquaman can only talk to fish" joke has been done to death by pretty much everyone, and it's even more lame when DC tries to get in on the joke itself. At least we don't see Aquaman acting like a total dick, in that he realizes that he's not being fair and recommends that Supergirl check out Dr. Mid-Nite. Again, why? Are we to expect a bunch of blind jokes now? As much as I'd like to see Dr. Mid-Nite in any context, I'm hoping Palmiotti doesn't continue to bank on cute DC cliches for content. Although I know as well as anyone that you can get a lot of mileage out of them.
14. "Teen Titans" by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway. The only interesting thing about this strip as far as I can tell is that it is the only one that acknowledges Final Crisis. So make whatever of that what you will. Is this actually meant to be set in the recent DC past? The new Blue Beetle suggests yes. With him gone, the strip continues to be difficult and unpleasant to look at, as we seem to be looking at a computer base that happens to be outside and next to a bridge. The bad guy turns out to be the son of Dr. Light (which is where the Final Crisis part comes in: the Spectre melted him into a candle, if you'll remember). Superman pops up, which is confusing, and the fact that they think Arthur Light's torture was "deserved" reflects a stone-age, non-DC version of "Justice" very along the lines of what James Robinson does these days ("The guy was a rapist? Fuck due process! Turn him into a fucking candle!"). None of the Titans have any sort of personality yet, and I still don't know where they are going or what they seem to be doing. This is just a mess.
15. "Green Lantern" by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones. At first I was pleased to see that the Hal Jordan-Dillon bromance flashbacks were over, but now I am even more angry at this strip given that I know Kurt Busiek is way better at composing smackdowns than he shows here. Quinones is a good artist but everything he does seems so generic, it doesn't even belong in an anthology that is meant to show generic depictions of your favorite superheroes. I know it's hard in a project like this to keep up the action week to week using only one page, so I really really hope Busiek comes up with a novel way for Jordan to escape death this time around. Or better yet, just have him die. No, I am not part of H.E.A.T.
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