Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Zero #3

Zero #3

Writer: Ales Kot

Artist: Mateus Santolouco

Image Comics

 

Much of the media coverage surrounding Ales Kot’s innovative new series has focused on the format of the book itself. If you haven’t been filled in, the deal is that he writes a single self-contained story each month for a different artist. Each issue builds on the established world and its characters, without following any prescribed point A to point B linear narrative. It’s a compelling strategy that is uniquely suited to maintain the relevance of the monthly issue in a climate that demands collectible ongoing stories. Kot’s narrative technique no-doubt has reader’s who favor the formalist approach to graphic storytelling sqeeing in collective glee, however, after three issues of the book I’m convinced that it is his focused and precise storytelling that makes his structural approach work, and not the other way around.

Background is the bane of the monthly comic writer. Not enough, and new readers are lost, too much and long time readers become frustrated and bored. Info dumps in the form of prose at the start of an issue are at best redundant and at worst jarring. In-narrative exposition wastes valuable real estate and can put a reader to sleep. Quick character profiles are sometimes the best way to go, they can at least cue the reader in on who’s good, who’s bad, who’s important, and who to watch. It depends, of course, on how character driven the narrative is. This works especially well with Zero as the narrative boils down entirely to what we know about the characters, which is to say not much.

On the first page we get the following three bios:

 

Zero: Edward Zero is a secret agent. He works for the agency. This is the story of his life

Mina Thorpe: Zero’s friend. Also works for the Agency

Ginsberg Nova: Bin Laden is dead. Ginsberg Nova is not.

 

Creating compelling fiction is all about setting up questions that drive the reader to keep reading. The questions set up in these quick profiles are: what is the agency? and what is the nature of these characters’ relationships to it. These questions are the same every issue. It almost seems too simple, but that’s the misdirection at play. The answers to these simple questions are inconceivably complex. Rather than building in a linear manner, leading the reader from one reveal to the next, each issue reveals a different aspect of the agency, and a different layer of Zero’s relationship to it. The issues move backward and forward in time, bringing different actors and themes to the foreground as the mosaic that is the secret organization and Zero’s life as one of its members slowly resolves itself.

Quietly, it seems the comic industry has been trying a handful of tactics to incentivize monthly purchases. Marvel and DC stick with the relatively mundane read-it-here-first premium, often waiting months before collecting a completed storyline. Other Image titles have used the letters column as a means of building a relationship with the fans and presenting exclusive material (Brian k. Vaughan and Matt Fraction are doing this particularly well with Saga and Sex Criminals respectively). But this is the first time, and least in a while, where the storytelling itself caters to the monthly readership, and more importantly, the first time readers. I can’t think of a single reason why a new reader would be any less capable of picking up issue #3 than someone who has also read the first two. That’s not to say that reading every issue doesn’t enrich the experience, it just doesn’t matter in what order you read them. Of course, with Mateus Santolouco’s hyper-kinetic and stylish art on display in this issue, I can’t think of any reason to wait another month before giving Zero a shot.

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Detective Comics #25

Detective Comics #25

Writer: John Layman

Artist: Jason Fabok

DC Comics

 

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman Zero Year epic is in full swing and this is the month in which it will bleed into most other bat family titles, and a hand full of others from around the DCU. Like many who voice their opinions (but, apparently unlike even more who buy the books), I do not get excited about crossovers. The clumsy inconsistent storytelling, the interruption to ongoing story arcs, the prodding to buy books not on my regular pull list, I could do without it all… except, as I’ve discovered over the last 2 years, when it comes to the batman family in the New 52.

A lot of good things have been said about the various bat titles over the past two years and change, but I’m not sure the creators (and editors, though they’ve been much maligned of late) have been given enough credit for creating such a satisfying shared universe. The DCU as a whole has had its problems, but the bat books have done a wonderful job at maintaining a cohesiveness across the line, while cultivating a diverse lineup of characters and creators, all at a remarkably high level of quality.

More importantly, when the bat books enter crossover territory, it’s clear that the creators are feeding off one another’s enthusiasm and excitement, like they are being encouraged to up their game constantly. That’s exactly what we get in Layman and Fabok’s crack at the dark knight’s formative years in Detective Comics #25.

The story follows Jim Gordon in his early days with the GCPD. It does its duty and checks off a few boxes, namely how Gordon’s partnership with Batman began, and the origin of the bat signal. As with most good storytelling, however, it’s not the what that’s so important but the how. Layman and Fabok thread these events through the narrative using a few well planted motifs: the use of masks, the NewTrigateBridge, a flashlight given to Gordon by his daughter, Barbara. The continuity surrounding Batman in the New 52 is already quite rich and it’s satisfying that author’s are confident enough to use it to such meticulous advantage when strengthening the present tense of their stories, and also to foreshadow the future.

If Scott Snyder’s story is a reworking of Frank Miller’s Year One within a modern context, then this issue’s goal is to do the same for the Gordon storyline in that classic. Layman’s success at this is all the more impressive because he achieves in a single issue.

The narrative pleasure in this story is of the we-know-what-will-happen-so-let’s-gleefully-watch-it-unfold variety – a personal favorite when done right, but artist Jason Fabok deserves a good chunk of the credit here too. Mechanical storytelling requires great attention to detail, and in the case of comics, clear consistent transitions and pacing. Fabok’s “cinematic” style has never felt more refined that with this issue. He moves between establishing panels to close-ups with a deft confidence and adds a few tricks to his bag, like silhouettes and horizontal layouts, along with two splash pages that, though 15 pages apart, could be used side by side as a distillation of the issue’s core narrative.

As a fan of the character since before I can remember, I might be biased, but I believe Batman is the true cornerstone of the DC Universe. It often feels like the DC Executives, and certainly Warner Brothers, believe Superman should play that part, but it’s Batman who bridges the gap between human and superhuman, between myth and heroism. It’s validating to see the story of Batman play the fulcrum on which the history of the DC Universe pivots, as Superman, Green Arrow, The Flash, and Green Lantern, among others, all revisit this era over the next month. For those looking for a place to dip their toes in the DC Universe, I can’t think of a better place to start than November’s Zero Year titles, so get busy.

Check This Out! – Comics Picks of the Week: The Raven and the Red Death and Astounding Villain House

The Raven and the Red Death

Writer: Richard Corben

Artist: Richard Corben

Dark Horse Comics

 

Astounding Villain House

Writer: Shannon Wheeler

Artist: Shannon Wheeler

Dark Horse Comics

 

This week saw the first issue of Sandman: Overture and the latest masterful installment of Saga, either of which could happily be my pick of the week. However, you’ll run in to lavish praise and enthusiastic recommendations for both books all over the web whether you’re looking for it or not. So instead of adding to the noise I am going to throw my support behind a delightful pair of one shot anthologies from Dark Horse Comics.

The Raven and the Red Death is the latest installment in Richard Corben’s series of loose Poe adaptations. As the name suggests, it includes an interpretation of The Raven, as well as The Masque of the Red Death. If you’ve read Corben’s Poe stories before you know not to expect an overly literal adaptation of the source material, but rather a loose riff on the themes and characters from the originals. Though typically true to the mood and intention of those poems and stories, these comics are tempered with the influence of classic Warren horror stories along with the absurdity and satire of underground comix.

His takes are big and bold and lacking subtlety, though so too were the Poe originals. True to the spirit of Creepy and Eerie, EEYARGH!s and AAAGH!s abound (all superbly lettered by Nate Piekos), dialog is straightforward, and occasionally redundant, and bloody rotting imagery exists in excessive quantities. All of this is welcome as it evokes a gleeful depravity that has been missing from comics for too long.

Mag the Hag plays the part of the ubiquitous MC, as did predecessors like The Crypt Keeper and Uncle Creepy. Her job here, however, is elevated above the sarcastic quips of her forebears to clever metatextual commentary that targets the material itself rather than the characters therein. Take, for example, a scene in which Mag clambers across an old decrepit castle. She says: “Two hours wandering in circles… looking for a story. Maybe there’s something in these ruins…” ouch. are you just gonna sit there and take that Edgar?

But the real heart of these stories is Corben’s delightful penchant for satire. He seamlessly intertwines the revoltingly grotesque and the playfully burlesque, whether it’s the narrator’s lecherous hallucinations in The Raven, subverting the ostensible theme of lost love with one of impotent patriarchy, or the oafish caricature of the king in Red Death, pitting lavish excess against the backdrop of cruel suffering.

In a spirit that’s less horrific, but even more absurd, Dark Horse also gives us Shannon wheeler’s Astounding Villain House an endlessly compelling collection of four stories that follow the exploits of “mediocre midlevel mooks” housed in a “medium-security prison” known as the Villain House.

Villain House wanders through an assortment of mundane topics ranging from dating to ideological arrogance, all through the lens of a series of outrageously inept bad-guys. This book’s 32 pages introduce no less than 10 villains, along with a handful of foils and sub-par heroes. Wheeler’s designs are adorably conceived from the impossible postures of the six-armed “squid” to the unfairly maligned “Blind Mole-Rat King.”

Wheeler’s humor is mostly preoccupied with riffing on the banal of everyday life, but he also takes a few shots at some of the superhero genres regular characters and conceits, most blatantly when he satirizes a certain “Fantastic Family.” He really lets them have it too.

Admittedly, these two titles aren’t in my regular wheelhouse. I usually like things played a little straighter, but, as they say, variety is the spice of life. Also, these type of one-offs encourage a level of creative freedom that can be stifled by the pressure to maintain an ongoing series, even if it is creator-owned. These two titles combine for a total of 6 stories in 58 pages and at only $7.50, you can’t do much better in this era of four dollar 20 page comics.

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Buzzkill #1

Buzzkill #1

Writers: Donny Cates and Mark Reznicek

Artist: Geoff Shaw

Dark Horse Comics

 

Superhero comics, with all their highs and lows, are mostly the domain of the “big two” comics publishers. Sure, there are standouts from time to time from the indies, but DC and Marvel have a lot of market power that makes competition a challenge. Thanks to the noted lack of genre diversity from those publishers, however, fantasy, horror, hard Sci-fi, even crime and war comics, are prime genres for exploitation from the independent and small press camps. When indie publishers do tackle the superhero genre, they tend to do so with a postmodern sensibility and an a dash of irony (Jupiter’s Legacy and Sex come to mind as two contemporary examples). It’s too bad, because there’s a lot of room for sincere explorations of the superhero form that focus on characters and relationships rather than just explosive action and reductive conceptions of good and evil.

Cates and Reznicek’s Buzzkill is a great example of what is possible from the former category.  The premise is simple: the protagonist, Ruben (a fake name taken for AA meeting) is a superhero whose powers come from consuming drugs and alcohol. The problem is he wants to get clean. In doing so, he is suddenly vulnerable to the very real threats that inevitably resurface from his former vigilante lifestyle, not to mention the identity issues that one would expect to come with this type of life change.

In fairness, that synopsis could probably go either way, and the skeptical reader could probably ask: isn’t that just a deconstruction of the trope of personal sacrifice? or, they may point out that there is more than a dash of irony inherent in the concept of a hero who is defined by their own lack of self-control. well, assuming you haven’t read issue #1 of this four-part mini-series, you will just have to take my word for it that its tone is carried less by winks and nods than it is by internal conflict and human interest.

This issue introduces a cast of fairly enigmatic characters, but with an impressive economy that breathes life into short bits of dialog and  largely silent sequences, and provide a sense of character and purpose despite gaps in motivation and back-story that will presumably be filled in during the mini-series. “Ruben,” on the other hand, is very fleshed out already. The creators manage to squeeze an origin, supporting cast, and conflict into a mere 22 pages. Despite leaving many questions unanswered (in a good way) the story clips along at a nice pace that provides for a very satisfying reading experience that would be a waste for me to ruin here with analysis.

Fortunately, the expressionistic cover gives a great feel for the tone and themes of the book, without giving away any spoilers. First, in the foreground, you have a riff on the classic image of the hero surveying his city from the rooftop, but rather than focused and pensive while preparing for patrol, this hero is hunched over, smoking a cigarette with a bottle in his hand. It’s as if he’s burnt out after a night of crime fighting, but given the nature of his powers, maybe he is gearing up for patrol, in this case, his defeated demeanor is brought on by the lifestyle he’s forced to maintain in order to be a hero, rather than villains he faces. The real kicker, however, is when you realize that the sprawling urban skyline he overlooks is made up of endless booze bottles. It’s a brilliant touch that I didn’t even notice until a few days after I first read the comic. In the expressionistic trope exploited here, the city usually stands in for the hero’s own psychological landscape; take that into account and the prospects for our protagonist’s mental health look pretty bleak.

Buzzkill is a limited series as it’s being marketed so far, but it definitely has ongoing potential. Hopefully these four issues serve as a trial run for a continuing storyline because this was one of those first issues that left me wanting more!

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Darkseid #1

Justice League #23.1: Darkseid #1

Writer: Greg Pak

Artists: Paulo Siqueira and Netho Diaz

DC Comics

 

After the utterly disappointing news this week that J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman would be walking off of Batwoman due to editorial conflicts, something DC has seemingly been dealing with a lot recently, I found myself carrying some really negative feelings towards the publisher. I’m usually able to accept the business aspects of mainstream comics as an unavoidable reality and to take unpleasant creative changes in stride, but as a dedicated fan of this series, and its particular creative direction, I had trouble keeping my emotions in check. I wanted to steer clear of DC’s gimmicky Villains month for my next few picks of the week. Alas, after some soul-searching I have decided to take a more positive approach. In the midst of a slew of many of my favorite titles being canceled, and my favorite creators leaving, Greg Pak has proven to be an A-grade acquisition for DC and has surprised me with the unique and fresh creative direction he brings to his books, his Darkseid story is no exception.

As one may have suspected, despite the title used to market this issue, Justice League #23.1 actually fits within the author’s current arc on Batman Superman, not the ongoing Justice League title. Yes, the decision to give many of their books nonsensical, arbitrary, and confusing titles was a stupid one on DC’s part, but all things considered it was a relatively harmless stupid decision, so I won’t harp on it any more. What I will harp on is how satisfying and refreshing Pak’s take on the New Gods continues to be, following their lackluster introduction in the New 52 almost two years ago.

(spoilers follow, maybe they could have been avoided, but its what I felt like writing about, so be warned.)

Most of the successful villains month stories I’ve read so far (Ventriloquist, Two-Face) have largely avoided taking the origin route; however, it is appropriate that Darkseid #1 gives us what is best described as a creation myth. Greg Pak recasts Darkseid’s origins in the form of the ubiquitous trickster of religious myth. Much like Milton’s Lucifer, Uxas rebels at what he sees as an abusive use of power by the “Old Gods,” massive titans who keep a punitive watch over their world. Uxas uses his cunning to turn the gods against one another, and then his daring to kill them when they are down, devouring their power for his own and becoming the New God Darkseid. Blinded by rage and overcome with his new power, Darkseid transitions from trickster to destroyer. Annihilating the old world and replacing it with Apokolips.

It is a long held opinion of mine that the best examples of contemporary fantasy literature owe a greater debt to Milton’s tragic hero than to Tolkien’s reductive vision of good vs. evil, so naturally I find Pak’s epic narrative a welcome adjustment to the New Gods Mythos. If the story stopped here, however, it would be a clever little footnote in the world of the New 52; an interesting origin for those who care, an unessential one-shot for those who don’t. But the story picks up added significance and nuance when we realize, in a reflexive twist, that the narrator is Kaiyo, the trickster figure who readers of Batman Superman will recognize as the puppet master behind the events of that series, and so the cycle continues. This twist adds significance to the cyclical and cosmic nature of vengeance and retribution in the realm of the New Gods, and the DC Universe in general, but the issue achieves even more than that. Among other things, it offers an origin and purpose for the creation of the boom tube, a kaleidoscopic vision of the DC multiverse, and the motivation behind Darkseid’s invasion of said multiverse. Pak’s continuity is satisfying on the levels of both character and narrative – all of a sudden Darkseid’s anticlimactic first appearance in Justice League #4 doesn’t suck quite so bad.

DC’s ultimate plans for the New Gods in the New 52 are still anyone’s guess. Could a new series revolving around this canon appear following Forever Evil? Greg Pak appears to have a very well developed and nuanced concept surrounding these characters and I would love to see him have the opportunity to flesh them out on a greater canvas – maybe an Apokolips title written by Greg Pak, set against a complementary resurrection of Forever People written by Jeff Lemire or Matt Kindt? eh? what do you think DC?

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Trillium #1

Trillium #1

Writer and Artist: Jeff Lemire

Vertigo Comics

 

Does Jeff Lemire have a definitive work yet? He’s such a relative newcomer that it seems a little premature to start discussing this question; still the case could be made for a whole host of titles. There’s Essex County his break-out indie saga of a Canadian small town; Sweet Tooth, his longest running ongoing comic to date about family, loyalty, and a post-apocalyptic animal-hybrid plague; then there’s the intimate, Twilight Zone-esque meditation on fatherhood, Underwater Welder. Even some of his mainstream work for which he gets a writing credit only could make the cut. Take the ambitious and dramatic Animal Man saga, or Green Arrow, which is in its infancy, but quite promising. An impressive resume, in fact the man could probably stop right now and still boast one of the more impressive comics legacies. Despite all that, it’s quite possible that Trillium, his latest creator-owned series from Vertigo, could be the series that truly defines his legacy in the industry.

Trillium is far more ambitious in scope than anything Lemire has previously attempted. While it is true that his work, with the notable exception of Essex County, has generally been infused with a science fiction aesthetic, the genre has generally been more of a backdrop for the interpersonal relationships that are Lemire’s primary agenda. Here, however, the worlds that Lemire creates, and the sci-fi tropes that he employs, are as crucial to how we understand the characters that exist in and among them, and the subtexts that unite them, even despite the fact that 1,876 years stand between the two protagonists. In case you just missed that, that would be major sci-fi trope number one: time travel. It appears to be of the drug induced variety, always a favorite of mine, and it revolves around an ancient Incan temple that stands right smack in the middle of an extra-solar planet called Atabithi, but also in 1920s south America. There is also “the Caul” a sentient virus threatening humanity, the flower that contains the key to a vaccine, and the alien species who controls access to said flowers.

With only four thousand humans left, flung to the edges of the galaxy, clinging to the last shred of hope, the stakes are sky high. Nika, the first protagonist we meet is playing the role of ambassador, trying to reach an amicable agreement with the aliens after the first crew who approached them disappeared under mysterious circumstances. She has been given an ultimatum from above, pressed hard by the encroaching Caul, she has just days to reach an agreement with the aliens before they will resort to more extreme tactics.

Time, as a motif, weaves its way throughout the story, and not just in the obvious way. For Nika and the rest of her race, time is slipping through their grasp, a sentient virus approaches inexorably from one side while they literally stare down a black hole, visible from their outpost on  Atabithi, on the other side. And then, in the literal flipside of this narrative, a story that reads from the back of the comic in and structurally mirrors the first half, we follow William, an archaeologist who, rather than fighting against the future, is at war with his own past, haunted by flashbacks of a gruesome experience from the first World War. He is trapped in an unhappy marriage and searches for something, anything, to bring meaning to his life. He settles on a deadly expedition in search of the fabled LostTemple of the Incas (you can see where this is going now), rumored to imbue men with vitality and good fortune.

Trillium is more than a meditation on the nature of time and space, it is also a story about humans, how they relate to one another, and the lengths to which they will go to do what they think they must. It sees cultures clash for varied reasons and with varied consequences, it pits colleagues against one another, but juxtaposes the worst examples of human depravity with the most tender moments of human connection. Though the seed of the romance that promises to blossom between the two characters has barely been planted, Lemire’s structural and thematic cues effectively telegraph some of what we may expect him to explore in the rest of the series. Billed in promotions as “the last love story every told,” Trillium promises to take readers on a bittersweet journey as we are immersed in the timeless characteristics of humanity that have always, and to all indications will always, define our species: that includes the good alongside the bad, and the beautiful snuggling up uncomfortably close to the grotesque.

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Detective Comics #22

Detective Comics #22

Writer: John Layman

Artist: Jason Fabok

DC Comics

 

Detective Comics is back! Yes, I know, this book has been published for over 900 straight issues (depending on which numeration you want to go by), but I’m referring to the first half of the title: detective. Ever since Scott Snyder’s sleuthy pre-new-52 run on the book ended, Detective Comics has exhibited a noticeable dearth when it comes to the tight street level procedurals that traditionally defined it. Tony Daniel’s work was all over the place, taking on organized crime with his Penguin stories before transitioning to some zany sci-fi, even Lohn Layman’s superior contributions have had less to do with cracking cases than cracking skulls. But with issue #22, Layman has introduced an intriguing new network of villains headed up by the enigmatic anti-batman “Wrath.”

The issue opens as two G.C.P.D cops explain to Commisioner Gordon how two of their fellow officers were slain by the Batman and were almost gunned down themselves in the process. Gordon doesn’t buy it, but the new-52 is a more hostile place for vigilantes than we’ve seen in the years proceeding, so naturally Gotham’s finest are a little on edge. Thanks to the magic of dramatic irony, we know that Batman isn’t the killer, and Batman knows that Batman isn’t the killer, but neither of us knows who this deadly bastard is, or why he wants to take down the G.C.P.D. and tarnish the Caped Crusader’s reputation in the process.

But there are some clues. In fact, Bruce Wayne is being attacked on two fronts in this storyline. While Wrath is chipping away at Batman’s reputation, arms manufacturer, E.D. Caldwell is making a move on Wayne Industries. His bid for Wayne’s company may have been unequivocally rejected, but he is still able to sway public opinion through some high-profile philanthropy and a massive marketing campaign. The fact that Caldwell appears to make the criminals’ weaponry and the new protective gear that’s been saving cops’ lives from it, even when Batman turns up late, puts the Dark Knight in a tight spot. The connection between Caldwell and the cape-and-cowled cop-killers, however, is yet to be revealed.

As ecstatic that I am to have Batman return to his procedural roots, that alone doesn’t make this issue stand out for me. Whenever a successful creative team takes over a book there is a moment when you know they have found their voice, issue #22 is that moment for Layman and Fabok, mainly because they have figured out how to temper their brash brand of storytelling with a few subtle structural twists. This issue has a lot going on here sub-textually; Bruce Wayne’s own status as the billionaire, self-appointed protector of Gotham treads some ethically murky water that usually gets glossed. In this issue Bruce’s distrust towards Caldwell exposes a nagging aspect of his personal insecurity and forces him to justify his own claim to Gotham. Interestingly, Layman tried this device earlier in his run when he had Penguin and Bruce competing for the naming rights of a children’s hospital. It may have worked fine for that storyline, but here his approach is more modern (with all its corporate buy-outs and bullet-proof vests) and therefore feels a bit more relevant and meaningful as well.

The relationship between words and pictures finds more nuance in issue #22 as well. The quippy, but matter of fact, first person narration that has characterized most of Layman’ run finds more versatility as it switches between the G.C.P.D. point of view and Bruce Wayne, the man, as well as the Batman-on-the-prowl persona Layman seems to love. He also gives more weight to dialog in a well written conversation between Bruce and Alfred, and exhibits trust in Fabok by letting him show us how Caldwell’s influence has infused Gotham, rather than giving it to us through exposition.

Aesthetically, Fabok’s art has been of a high quality for the duration of the run. I had to adjust my expectations early on as I was hoping for a moody take on the title, but I have come to appreciate the imposing quality of his compositions. The sheer weight of Fabok’s figures and landscapes envelopes us in the dark side of Gotham and conveys an impressive immediacy.

This issue is a terrific jumping on point for Detective Comics. If you were soured to earlier issues of the title, but still yearn for something to fill that ground level Batman niche, you would be advised to give it another go.

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: Batwoman #21

Batwoman #21

Writers: J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman

Artist: Francesco Francavilla

DC Comics

During their ongoing Batwoman saga, J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman have made clever and unique use of Killer Croc, one of the stranger, but endearing figures from Batman’s rogues gallery. During Medusa’s attempted siege on Gotham, the mythological beast, Hydra, was channeled through Croc, elevating him from a scrappy outcast, to a genuine monster. It seems, however, that there has been some editorial disagreement about this character’s role. A few weeks ago, Williams used twitter to voice some of his frustrations about how editorial quashed the Killer Croc plans he had been building towards for the last two years. More recently, DC announced that for the September’s villains month, Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash) would be writing the Killer Croc one shot, not Williams and Blackman, and Seeley indicated that his job would be to reconcile the divergent portrayals of the character that have appeared in Batwoman, Red Hood, and Katana. Batwoman #21 could probably be read as the creative team saying: screw it, we’re doing the Villains month issue anyway.

I can’t speak for the DC editorial staff, but I find it hard to imagine a Killer Croc story that is either more definitive or more inclusive than this one. Told through a sympathetic first person, this issue shows us a Croc who has come down from the transformed-into-a-creature-of-myth high he had been on during the last few months. He is insecure, confused and full of self-doubt – usually interesting traits for a super-villain. Not only does the issue serve as a psychological study, but it also considers Croc’s past and his future. Flashback sequences take us to Killer Croc’s childhood as a young outcast with a disfiguring skin condition, while the issue simultaneously speculates about his future with the Religion of Crime, who have taken him in with the hope that he may take the place of their fallen leader. Croc’s struggle with identity, however, ultimately hinges on the one identity he can’t escape – Waylon Jones.

Williams and Blackman mix metaphor and mysticism to create a neat little plot device whereby Croc’s real name grounds him back to his terrestrial form, overcoming medusa’s spell. As Killer Croc says during the story: “it wasn’t much, but I read enough to know names mean somethin’. Names have power.” Of course, this traditional principle from magical lore also illustrates the underlying tragedy of a character who tries ceaselessly, yet futilely, to escape his past.

Despite all its focus on Killer Croc, we do get an appearance from Batwoman and her fiancée Maggie Sawyer. Croc is charged with killing Batwoman in order to prove his loyalty to the Religion of Crime, of course he gets more than he has bargained for when he is faced with not one, not two, but three (Flamebird shows up towards the end) kick-ass women who ultimately send him retreating with his tail between his legs. left to face the Religion of Crime as a failure, Croc must make one last attempt to retake his own destiny.

Even considering the terrific story told in this issue, the most pleasant surprise (which I somehow missed during the solicitations) was the fill in work by artist Francesco Francavilla. Readers of Entropic Worlds know that recently I’ve been raving about his work on The Black Beetle, but I first fell in love with his stuff in the pre-new 52 Detective Comics story by Scott Snyder. During the new-52 he filled in on an issue of Swamp Thing with Scott Snyder, and that issue also primarily focused on a villain, Anton Arcane. I was struck in both instances by how well he handles the darker corners of the DC Universe. I don’t think he is illustrating a book in villains month, but he should be. Both Batwoman and Snyder’s run on Swamp Thing have made use of unconventional paneling and two-page spreads, both books are heavily associated with their visual aesthetic. Its a great tribute to Francavilla’s versatility and talent that, in both cases, he was able to maintain consistency with the respective styles of the books, while also imbuing them with a fresh and authentic quality that is his alone.

Back to that controversy surrounding Killer Croc and the Batwoman creators… I’m not sure if this issue represents the seed of an arc that will no longer be finished, or a compromise after their initial plans were belatedly vetoed. One thing is certain: no matter what direction DC plans to take this character, Batwoman #21 certainly stands on its own as a high point for Killer Croc, and for the new 52 in general.

Check This Out! – Comics Pick of the Week: The Movement #2

The Movement #2

Writer: Gail Simone

Artist: Freddie Williams II

DC Comics

Amanda Conner sure can compose a nice cover. I love the way she captures that potent tension between insecurity, confidence, and ambition that’s so salient in teenage characters. It also maintains a nice ambiguity – are the characters pursuing a foe or being pursued? Notice also how no single character dominates the composition, but our eye is guided to each of them one by one as we try (futilely) to sort out where the threat is coming from. It takes some liberty with the actual narrative events in the issue, but it actually does a nice job of previewing what we can we expect from  a more tonal and thematic perspective.

From a cursory glance at the reviews after last month’s debut, critics seemed a little cold and indifferent to the series’ premier. I was mostly in agreement, if a little more optimistic. But with issue #2 the pieces seem to fall nicely in to place in a way that was lacking a month ago. For one thing, we get a much more complete sense of who this “movement” is, what they want, and how they’re organized. As the cover hints, the answer to the last question is: not terribly well. True to form, these kids are brash and impulsive and haven’t quite thought things through. They’ve kidnapped two crooked cops, locked them up in the abandoned garment factory that they, and a few dozen of the local homeless, are squatting, but they can’t agree on what the end game is.

Despite these shortcomings, however, we find ourselves admiring their passion, commitment, and empathy (to greater or lesser extents depending on the character in question) all the same. In issue #1 we never got up close and personal with any of the book’s main characters, largely because we were reading mostly from the perspective of the cops. In this issue we are brought down to ground level (or underground level, I suppose) with the movement, and each character is given his or her moment. One could argue that they are still set in one-dimensional molds, but even that begins to change as we see the characters start to second guess their actions. They begin to acknowledge the hypocrisy of holding the cops as prisoners against their will, and they start to question whether they belong in this group; each character has reservations borne out of their own unique values and sensibilities.

We get the sense that their may not be any clean and tidy resolution to this story; no matter what the outcome they will have to face responsibility for their actions and may have to answer to both the law and the public. This actually works as a nice contrast to the standard superhero stories in which an eventual victory (both physical and moral) is virtually inevitable from the start. The end result is an issue #2 that manages to be more dense and layered, but also more cohesive and unified than the first installment.

Gail Simone, in partnership with artist Freddie Williams II, also shows off some nice storytelling techniques that demonstrate a level of sophistication that hasn’t been as present in her work lately. She employs a parallel set of fight scenes that serve to illustrate the divided attitudes within the movement while building the landscape and cultural backdrop of Coral City. It may not be a groundbreaking structural technique, but it commands a high level of reader engagement, one of the ultimate goals of the medium in my opinion. I was also quite impressed with the way she uses Burden’s internal monologue. He is an interesting character to begin with, a kid who is tortured by the belief that his superpowers are actually the manifestation of a demonic possession. His neurotic wanderings, inserted through narrative captions seamlessly transition our focus away from the heated argument between the other characters, as he silently mediates on the relationship between violence and morality, forcing the reader to do the same.

I don’t remember being terribly moved by Williams’s artwork in issue #1, but here it struck me as intensely kinetic, whipping me in a whirlwind from panel to panel, while also being both emotive and expressive. It evoked the same reaction from me that Chris Burnham’s work has been achieving in Batman Inc. If this issue is any indication of the work to come on this title, than I will be a very happy reader.

Oh, and the new 52 debut of a Wildstorm character who shall remain nameless happens on the last page… just in case you needed any more incentive.

Check This Out: Comics Pick of the Week! – Steed and Mrs. Peel #8

Steed and Mrs. Peel #8

Writer: Caleb Monroe

Artist: Yasmin Liang

Boom! Studios

 

I started reading Steed and Mrs. Peel when Boom! reissued the Grant Morrison penned mini-series a few months back. I had anticipated dropping it from my pull list when the new series started up, but Mark Waid was writing the zero issue and those classic X-Men homage covers were pretty cool. I thought: what the hell, I’ll give it a try. My expectations remained low, yet here I am, a new creative team and 8 proper issues later and Steed and Mrs. Peel has become one of the titles I most look forward to on a monthly basis.

 

Monroe and Liang have proven to be quite the creative team, perfectly capturing the campy flirtatiousness of the original Avengers television series with sharp, choppy, episodic narratives. The stories have revolved around appropriately excessive concepts that skirt the lines of the absurd without ever dipping too far into the laughable. We’ve seen a subliminally suggestive conceptual performance art conductor, a seemingly empty bottle containing the gateway between realities, a drug induced suicide scheme, and in this issue, a remote controlled intelligence.

 

Steed and Mrs. Peel achieves a balance that few other commercial comics manage to (though more should strive for it). It rewards dedicated readers with an overarching story that becomes more layered and complex with each passing installment, while also delivering a combination of self contained issues and mini-arcs that are easily accessible to new readers, delivering a satisfying sense of closure with each conclusion.

 

This issue marks the start of a new mini-arc, and even though there is definitely some reference to events that go all the way back to the zero issue, I imagine the gist is clear enough that new readers won’t be lost, the added mystery may even do more to intrigue than discourage.

 

Caleb Monroe excels at tightly structured stories; he plays his allotted 22 pages like a fiddle. In this issue he uses multiple perspectives and ambiguous points of view to create a space of dramatic irony between the reader, the unfolding mystery, and the facts as they appear to Steed and Peel. The wit infused banter between the two titular characters frames the narrative continuity from beginning to end and serves as a bit of a red herring in its own right. The end product is endlessly fun to read – but transcending the kitsch and kink that characterizes most of the content is a genuinely suspenseful narrative that often catches the reader off guard.

 

At the beginning of the series, Liang’s artwork felt like one of the few shortcomings. Her figures were often inconsistent and their expressions seemed occasionally out of place, while her backgrounds were under-detailed. But she’s gotten better. Much better. this issue read flawlessly, from the splash page of bikini-clad Peel emerging from the ocean, which hits the perfect balance between her sultry figure and the idyllic setting, to the faded flashbacks seen through the eyes of our semi-veiled villain, that culminate in the satisfying final page reveal. I’ve never seen such drastic improvement over the course of only five issues! It can only bode well for the future.

 

If you haven’t gotten your feet wet with this series yet, don’t be afraid to jump in, the water’s warm.