Batman and Robin #11

Dick Grayson is getting closer to the hidden secrets of Wayne Manor, finding a secret temple, a hidden railway track, a stalactite carved to look like a bat-demon, and… something else. Oberon Sexton, the masked writer/detective, shows up to help Damian against Dr. Hurt’s hired killers, but what is he hiding? Damian has problems of his own — his recent spinal surgery allowed his mother to implant him with control devices that allow her — or her designated supervillain assassin — to operate Damian like a puppet. So when a mysteriously traumatized Dick hauls himself up from the catacombs beneath the mansion, is he going to be ready for Damian’s attacks? And will any of them survive the 99 Fiends?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A wonderfully deepening mystery, nicely tense, some very enjoyable action. If you aren’t getting this, I’ve got to assume that you’re already chock-full of koo-koo-cha-cha sauce, right?

Jonah Hex #54

Jonah’s up to his usual shenanigans — bringing in dead bandits for bounties, giving spoiled dandy lawmen the stinkeye, boozin’ it up, and glowering at pretty saloon girls. The trouble starts when some low-down varmint steals his horse, leading Jonah to, probably unwisely, pursue him on a mangy donkey. The misadventure ends with him bucked off and knocked out, but when he comes to in the morning, he still manages to bag another bunch of bandits. But when he returns to town, he finds the spoiled dandy lawman has been killed, and his spoiled dandy lawman brother-in-law reckons he can get away with framing Hex for the killin’. Can Hex and his few friends beat the rap and even the odds?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good ol’ fashioned hard-boiled Western fun. DC isn’t paying Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti nearly enough, and Jordi Bernet provides some fun artwork to go along with it.

Spider-Man: Fever #1

It’s been quite a while since Brendan McCarthy had a new comic out, so this one has gotten quite a bit of interest. We start off with the Vulture attacking Spider-Man at the same time as Dr. Strange discovers that the new grimoire he just ordered was sabotaged with a magic signal from one of the more rotten corners of the magical multiverse. The trap creates a spectral spider that moves through New York City, snags Spidey, and actually steals his soul before Dr. Strange can stop it. The demon drags Spidey back through a hallucinatory fever-dream into the depths of the netherverse as an offering to its king, a horrific spider-monster who plans to enjoy a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Snack…

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nicely weird book, somewhere between Steve Ditko, Vertigo Comics, and Richard Corben. The art and writing are simultaneously Silver-Age classic and acid-trip freaky. So far, it’s really interesting — go give it a look.

JSA All-Stars #5

While the JSA fights off the King of Tears with the timely assistance of a mysterious magic user named Anna Fortune, Stargirl and Atom-Smasher are stuck, powerless, in a magical sub-dimension called the Subtle Realms, trying to fight their way to freedom. Can they survive on their own? And if the rest of the JSA can follow them to the Subtle Realms, are they going to be any better off?

Verdict: Thumbs down. Still the worst art on any DC book. Just relentlessly distracting. It’s hard to focus on the story at all. I’m not real fond of the story either, but I really can’t tell if that’s because it’s not well done, or if it’s just absorbing some of the stink from the artwork. The second feature with Hourman and Liberty Belle is better illustrated, but it’s pretty spectacularly boring.

The Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010 #1

Ooooo, first issue. Ya gonna have more than one “Flash Secret Files and Origins” issue this year, DC?

We’ve got two stories in this one — first, Barry Allen is obsessing about who killed his mother. You didn’t know someone killed Barry Allen’s mother? It’s a retcon — his mom wasn’t ever really mentioned until recently, when it was suddenly revealed that someone killed her when he was a little kid, and his dad got blamed for it and died in prison. Barry doesn’t believe that his dad killed his mom, and that’s what steered him toward work as a police scientist as a career. Our second story focuses on the Rogues — Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and the Trickster — visit the original Mirror Master’s spooky headquarters to check into an old anti-Flash contingency plan. And after that, there are profiles of the Flash, his supporting cast, and his villains.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yeah, I didn’t really mind it that much. It’s light, but you’re not going to get any real deep stories in these “Secret Files” comics. The worst I can say for it is I think they slipped up and revealed the solution to the big mystery without realizing it.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! #14

Black Adam is back, thanks to Freddy Freeman telling an amnesiac Theo Adam the magic word he needed. He and Captain Marvel knock each other around, and Mary Marvel tries to talk some sense into Freddy. Black Adam realizes he can find an amulet from ancient Egypt to get enough power to destroy the Marvels once and for all, but can he find an ally to help him out?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Oddly, the slowest parts of this story are the slugfests between Captain Marvel and Black Adam. Everything aside from that is pretty darn cool. And the ending twist is pretty nice, too, even if we saw it coming pretty early.

So Batman, what do you like to eat after a long night of fighting crime?

Sounds good to me! Here, have a napkin.

This Saturday, April 10th, is going to be Lubbock Sketch Club Appreciation Day at Freebirds, at 4930 South Loop 289, Suite 250. That’s during the regular Sketch Night from 7-10 p.m.. If you’re in the Sketch Club, drop by, make some art, and chips and dip will be on the house. And if you’re not a Sketch Club member — sounds like it’d be a good time to go meet some artists, don’t it?

And speaking of meeting artists, that sounds like a nice cue to mention the Lubbock Comic Book Expo again. Remember, it’s scheduled for the weekend after next — April 17-18, during the Lubbock Arts Festival, at the Lubbock Municipal Civic Center at 1501 Mac Davis Lane. It’ll run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to the Expo is completely free! And admission to the Arts Festival is just two bucks. Dude, bring an extra two bucks and go check out the rest of the art, too, a’ight?

Don’t miss out, or there will be hurtin’.

The Littlest Zombie #1

Okay, I think we’re quite aware by now that I’ve got a weak spot in my heart for zombies.

So it’s the end of the world, the dead have risen from their graves, and only a few survivors continue to struggle against the inevitable. Of course, we don’t care that much about them, ’cause our main character is an adorable little kid who ain’t exactly on the breathing side of things and who likes to nosh on cerebellum. All the little tyke wants is the occasional decapitated head, but the bigger and meaner zombies knock him around and take all the good bits for themselves. But things change when a bunch of human survivors get trapped inside a bank, stuck between a bunch of hungry zombies, including one of the zombie tyke’s tormentors, and their own greed, addictions, deceit, and weaknesses. Is the rotten little squirt going to be able to get some dinner out of all this chaos?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Simultaneously adorable and disgusting. Huzzah! It’s like Christmas came early! Writer/artist Fred Perry is best known for manga-esque cheesecake/furry art, like in his “Gold Digger” series, but this definitely shows he’s hidden talents for both pitch-black humor and nicely tense drama. Good fun — go pick it up.

Justice Society of America #37

Twenty years into the future, Mr. Terrific is a prisoner of an all-powerful Nazi army that’s on track to conquer the whole world. He’s recounting events from our present for the benefit of his captors — Alan Scott has been killed, Flash and Liberty Belle have been defeated, Obsidian has been kidnapped. Lightning and Mr. America take down a dragon-riding Nazi, Dr. Mid-Nite squashes Kid Karnevil, and Wildcat and Mr. Terrific take out three different super-Nazis. But the Nazis have a secret weapon — something called the Darkness Weapon that uses the kidnapped Obsidian as a power source. It’s a machine that drains superpowers, and it can be turned up high enough to kill anyone within its range. The JSA decides to surrender, hoping to rally back later… but that chance to rally never comes. And in the future, Mr. Terrific and a small number of remaining superheroes are held powerless and scheduled for eventual execution. Is there any hope for either the future or the past?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I was generally unimpressed with the stuff set in the present, but the future-world gets points for being unusually depressing. Bruce Wayne is scheduled for a dawn execution, Clark Kent lost an eye, and they’re all trying to put some almost hopeless plan into effect to topple the entire Nazi empire. Of course, we know it’ll be successful, but how is it supposed to work, and what kind of monkey wrenches are going to get thrown in the way?

Detective Comics #863

Serial mutilator Cutter has kidnapped Kate Kane’s cousin Bette — and he’s got an accomplice as crazy as he is, a heavily bandaged woman who wants Cutter to cut off Bette’s ears so she can have them. Bette used to be a superhero called Flamebird, but she wasn’t wildly successful and she’s kinda tied up now, so she doesn’t have much of a way to resist. Batwoman is trying to track Cutter down (paralleled by how Bruce Wayne tried to track Cutter down years ago, the first time he kidnapped someone), but can she find them in time to save Bette?

Meanwhile, in the backup feature starring the Question, Renee Montoya and the Huntress have been caught on Oolong Island, international haven for mad scientists, and get tortured to find out what they’re doing there. Soon, they’re brought before Veronica Cale, president-for-life of Oolong, and they persuade her that directing them to the smuggler they’re after is a lot easier than having to deal with a bunch of superheroes who’ll eventually come looking for them.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great art, great storytelling. And that’s for both the main feature and the backup. Don’t know that I need to say a lot more than that — this is just a wonderful, wonderful comic book. Greg Rucka is going to be greatly missed when he leaves this book.

Madame Xanadu #21

This series finally leave pre-Arthurian Britain and returns to 1950s America, where Nimue has been ambushed by her sister Morgaine le Fey and buried under the rubble inside her shop. Luckily, the mysterious, super-strong, telepathic detective John Jones comes to her rescue. While Morgaine cavorts with her suburban Satanists, Madame Xanadu and Detective Jones locate a group of mobsters who have transported a strange magical artifact from Chicago to New York. They take out the gangsters fairly easily (and Mr. Jones gets to show off some more of his unearthly talents) and finally gain control of Morgaine’s artifact. But what is it, and what place does it play in Morgaine’s plans?

Verdict: Thumbs up. So very, very glad we’re finally continuing this part of the story again. Aside from getting more of Amy Reeder Hadley‘s fantastic art, we also get a lot more of the disguised Martian Manhunter, and the story is proceeding very well. Weirdly, one of my favorite parts of this issue was the dialogue between the gangsters, both playful and menacing at the same time.

She-Hulk Sensational #1

It’s the 30th anniversary of the creation of She-Hulk, so Marvel has put together a commemorative comic starring the Jade Giantess. We start out with a new story about Shulkie worrying about hitting her 30th birthday and getting visited by a bunch of spirits, including Stan Lee (Why is Stan Lee a spirit?) and the Ghosts of She-Hulk Past, Present, and Future. After that, there’s a story from a couple years ago where She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel team up with a possible Skrulled-version of Spider-Woman to fight HYDRA. And finally, we get a classic and thoroughly goofy story from the John Byrne era of She-Hulk’s comic.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved the new story by Peter David and Jonboy Meyers — it had a lot of funny stuff in it, like a few nods to Shulkie breaking the fourth wall, a cameo appearance by former “She-Hulk” writer Dan Slott, and Iron Man proclaiming that “I just barfed in my helmet.” I also loved the Byrne story — it really does encapsulate a lot of the things that make Shulkie so much fun as a character. I actively disliked, however, the more recent Skrull-clone-Spider-Woman story, ’cause it’s mostly just lame and unnecessary. Still, on the whole, it’s all fun and worth reading.

Wonder Woman #42

A trio of Green Lanterns, including the Khund GL introduced a couple years ago in “Wonder Woman,” investigate a planetary genocide caused by an unusual bioweapon — billions of tiny snakes that ate everyone, grew larger, then turned on each other, growing larger and larger as they ate themselves. Two of the three Lanterns make their escape, though the third gets eaten by the snakes. Turns out it’s a really impractical way of raising a really, really big snakey food source — and this time, it’s a food source that’s got some Lantern energy in it. Later, we find these snake-producing aliens attacking Earth — they’re all women, they want 100 Earth women to induct into their society, and they plan on exterminating everyone else for food. Can Wonder Woman stop a bunch of crazy alien cannibalistic snake fanatics all by herself?

Verdict: I hate to say it, but thumbs down. Decent dialogue, nice art, but the background is just too corny to take really seriously. Any society that has to rely on a food source as unreliable and inefficient as self-eating snakes is too stupid to survive at all.

Well, an extra two days away from the blog didn’t exactly recharge my batteries, but it gave me two days away from the blog, and I guess that’s saying something.

Part of the problem may be that last week’s comics, with only one or two exceptions, were perfectly competent, but just not that enjoyable. But I guess we gotta start reviewing somewhere, so let’s start with one of the few that I thought was really fun.

Blackest Night #8

And hey, if you haven’t read this one yet, I’m gonna spoil the heck out of it. You have been warned.

Well, Sinestro has merged with the Entity, the incarnation of all life in the universe, making him the extremely powerful White Lantern. He doesn’t have too much trouble killing Nekron — or so it seems. How do you kill an undead god? You don’t, ’cause he can recreate himself with any of the billions of Black Lantern zombies in the universe. And it doesn’t take long for Nekron to separate Sinestro from the Entity. The Black Lanterns make a recovery until all of the Lantern Corps and Earth’s superheroes join the defense of the planet. Deadman briefly possesses Guy Gardner to suggest that the Lanterns should focus on Black Hand instead. Hal Jordan realizes that, though Nekron claims to have allowed all of the resurrected heroes to return to life, they all chose to embrace life on their own. He joins with the Entity and inducts all of the resurrected heroes, including Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Kid Flash, Green Arrow, Superboy, Donna Troy, Ice, and Animal Man, into a new White Lantern Corps, which lasts just long enough to bring Black Hand back to life.

Black Hand ends up puking up a bunch of white rings, the way he used to puke up black rings. He brings the Anti-Monitor back to life, which breaks the Black Lantern power battery. Nekron banishes him back to his own universe (which also frees up the Anti-Monitor for use in future crossovers), but he is then destroyed by the white rings. A bunch of white rings then start flying all over the place, resurrecting the Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Firestorm, Jade, Hawk, Captain Boomerang, Maxwell Lord, Professor Zoom, Osiris, and, most surprisingly, Deadman. Mera’s heart stops beating after her love for Aquaman frees her from the Red Lantern ring, but she’s saved by Star Sapphire and Saint Walker. Maxwell Lord makes his escape, and Hawkgirl is revealed to no longer be Kendra Saunders, but the classic Hawkgirl, Shiera Hall.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is what every single giant comics crossover of the last few years has wanted to be. It has all the epic stuff that a big cosmic crossover needs, with some good human level drama, too.

The few things I’m less-than-happy with are all related to the aftermath. Why bring Deadman back to life? Isn’t the entire point of Deadman that he’s, um, dead? I assume they’ll kill him sooner rather than later to get the status quo back, so why even bother resurrecting him? And my irritation about bringing Shiera Hall as Hawkgirl is mainly that I thought Kendra Saunders was a really cool character. And there’s going to need to be some explanation why these specific characters got brought back to life, and not, for instance, Ralph and Sue Dibny, Solovar, Trickster, or any of the dozens of other dead DC characters.

Astro City: The Dark Age – Book Four #3

A new player is on the scene, born partly from a rip in reality and partly from the current mood of darkness and violence in Astro City. A hooded figure riding a flaming horse skeleton, he calls himself the Pale Horseman, and he specializes in killing criminals — metahuman assassins, safecrackers… and jaywalkers and kids stealing shopping carts. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Charles and Royal Williams again miss the chance to kill Aubrey Jason, the supercrook who murdered their parents decades ago. While Jason is having trouble holding himself together after being converted into an energy form, he still manages to escape. The Williams brothers give chase, and Mirage tries to convince the Silver Agent not to keep traveling into the past, to avoid his own execution — and of course, the Agent refuses, because it’s still worth it to him to go out and save lives, even knowing what’s to come.

Back in Astro City, the Pale Horseman’s continued assaults on “transgressors,” combined with uncommonly bleak weather, has everyone in the city alternately terrified that they’ll be next on the Horseman’s list and eagerly anticipating seeing someone else get slaughtered by him. A former hero named Street Angel who’d once been mind-controlled by another vigilante into killing criminals tries to live a clean life but is targeted by the Horseman. Royal Williams runs into another ex-hero who the brothers were acquainted with when they were kids — and then Charles tracks down Aubrey Jason again.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is still a great contemplation of the Dark Age of comics history — it’s probably one of the best of its type out there. The Pale Horseman is certainly one of the most vivid and terrifying symbols of the Dark Ages that we’ve seen, and he makes a great antagonist, too. On top of that, the Silver Agent’s scene with Mirage is really very well done, and an excellent re-statement of the Agent’s Silver Age morals. If I’ve got a complaint about this issue, it’s that it’s going to be really difficult for new readers to follow. There’s a short recap of the action at the beginning, but there’s been so much happening in this series, it’s just not enough to explain everything that’s going on.

Hey, folks, I’m taking a very short break from the blog — I’ll be back on the job on Monday, but I just feel the need for a couple extra days of enjoying the beautiful weather, working on some other projects I’ve had on the back burner, and not thinking too hard about comic books.

So it’s basically two days off. Y’all can survive without me for that long. There, there — no need to cry…

Hicksville

I’ve considered reviewing this one before, but held off because it was out-of-print. “Hey, you guys would love this comic. Too bad you can’t actually get it. Ha ha!” Well, no longer. They’ve got a new edition for sale, so here we go.

“Hicksville” was created by New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks back in 1998. It focuses on a comics journalist named Leonard Batts who is writing a book about a guy named Dick Burger — the most acclaimed creator in comics, whose “Captain Tomorrow” series is a colossal industry all on its own, spawning insanely popular movies, winning the absolute devotion of every fanboy around, and financing a life of incredible luxury for Burger. Batts wants to find out more about how Burger’s youth influenced him, so he travels to the tiny New Zealand hamlet of Hicksville, where Burger grew up.

Hicksville is a… different kind of town. The local library has multiple copies of Action Comics #1, all original, all in mint condition. Everyone in town, from the postman to the farmers to the cafe owner to the little old lady down the lane is a comics afficionado, knowledgeable in everything from American superhero comics to obscure Hungarian mini-comics. And everyone in the village hates Dick Burger.

It’s hardly a perfect comic — for my money, there are too many characters who all look more or less the same, which makes it hard to keep track of which ones are important and which aren’t so important. On the other hand, this is really good for fleshing out people who live in and around Hicksville. There are a few tangents that, while interesting, ended up distracting me from the main story.

But even then, it’s an amazing piece of work, with lots of depth and personality, and an absolutely brilliant hook. What’s the secret behind Hicksville? Why is everyone there so mad for comics? What did Burger do to make everyone there hate him so much? What’s being hidden inside the lighthouse? Why does Leonard keep finding mysterious comics pages about three strange men lost in a land that cannot be mapped? Is Hicksville just a normal (but eccentric) town, or is there something else going on?

And it’s a great little valentine to the comics world, too. Horrocks loves indie and small-press comics a lot, but he loves superhero comics, too. And while the early superstar days of Image Comics get a thorough thrashing, mostly through the excesses of Dick Burger, Horrocks shows a great deal of love for comics creators in general, especially the old guys who never made a dime in comics, but kept doing it because they enjoyed it. By the time you’re done, you’ll end up wishing there really were a town like Hicksville out there somewhere, so you could move all your stuff out there and just check out comic after comic after comic from the lending library and attend the town’s awesome costume parties.

I loved this comic, and I think you will, too. Go pick it up.