Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 5/7

Batman: Eternal #5
Story: James Tynion IV & Scott Snyder, Tim Seeley, John Layman, Ray Fawkes
Art: Andy Clarke

I still plan on doing a catch up on this series with individual issue analyses, but I had to talk about this issue because it made me ever so happy. This issue moves away from the Jim Gordon plotline that was the driving force of the first month and introduces or fleshes out a few more characters. We get to see Vicky Vale, the reporter who is probably best known for her appearance in the first Tim Burton Batman movie, but is a much older character than that, as well as introducing her new associate at the Gotham Gazette. We also get to see Harper Row and her brother Cullen, the characters introduced as new supporting characters by Scott Snyder in his run on Batman. I love Harper; she's smart, tough, and a nice addition to the Bat family. But the thing that made this issue for me, really made it, was Tim Drake. Yes, it really feels like Red Robin is back in the Bat titles, after only a few appearances here and there throughout the tenure of the New 52. And this feels like my Tim Drake. I'm not going to start bashing Teen Titans here, but I will say that the Tim Drake there has not really rung true to someone who has pretty much every appearance the character has ever made. But this issue works beautifully. Tim is the tech savvy detective he always felt like he was supposed to be; he looks at the bigger picture and figures out something Bruce hasn't, and then he gets into a fight with a bunch of nanobots. Andy Clarke's art is solid throughout the issue, but the creepy tentacles of nanobots are really a great visual. I've been enjoying Eternal so far, but if this issue is an indication of the Red Robin to come, this book is going to be high on my reading order each and every week.

Cyclops #1
Story: Greg Rucka
Art: Russell Dauterman

I love Cyclops; I've written about that before. I love Greg Rucka. So the combination of a Cyclops ongoing written by Greg Rucka was a surefire hit with me. This series features the young Cyclops, the one brought to the present in All New X-Men on a space adventure with his dad, the space pirate Corsair. Cyclops here is sixteen, and someone who thought he lost his dad years before. Now he's trying to not only navigate being out of his own time and away from everyone he knows, but with the father he thought he lost and a crew that includes a giant lizard man, a bird alien, a cyborg, and a cat/skunk woman his dad is dating. Rucka paints a great picture of Cyclops, one that is fully fleshed out; he's a confused teenager without being whiny about it; Corsair gives his son the advice that, "everyone sucks at being sixteen," and I have to say, Rucka remembers that feeling and knows how to make it work really well. Aside from all that introspection and character beats, we also get some hints about exactly how Corsair is back from the dead (no, not the time Cyclops thought he was dead. That time he was just abducted by aliens. The time he seemed really dead), we get to meet Corsair's crew, the Starjammers, and we get an action piece involving boarding a Badoon ship. One of the things that makes this a strong first issue is you get pretty much an entire story in one issue. Marvel has had some great first issue's lately, especially She-Hulk and Daredevil, both of which did exactly this. While I understand trying to build a series around the first issue and having it spin into a huge arc, I always feel a strong stand alone first issue helps lure the reader back for more. While it might not have the direct agency of a "To be continued," you can get a better feel of exactly what the book will be if the first issue stands on its own. I find this especially true with mainstream superhero books, where the world building isn't as difficult since you're building a house of a pre-existing frame; books where you have to build the whole world get a bit more time from me, and I'll get to that in a minute. The issue wraps with Cyclops and Corsair heading out on their own in the captured Badoon ship for a tour of the galaxy's great sites. I'm a sucker for father and son stories, and this is a cosmic road trip thrown in. It looks like a fun, action series with a strong core relationship, and is a series I'm looking forward to watching develop.

Nailbiter #1
Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Mike Henderson

Speaking of issue ones that have to spend some time doing world building, here is the horrifying (in the best sense of the word) Nailbiter, from the writer of my favorite Image series I feel like needs more attention, Ghosted, Joshua Williamson. Imagine one town produced Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Jack the Ripper. If it existed, that town would be Buckaroo, Oregon, a creepy little town that has produced sixteen serial killers. After a brief introduction to one of these "Buckaroo Butchers," the titular  Edward "Nailbiter" Warren, we are introduced to the character who seems to be our protagonist, Nicholas Finch, an army intelligence agent who seems about to take his own life. Only a call from a friend of his, an FBI profiler, stops him. His friend tells him that he has discovered the secret of Buckaroo, and that Finch needs to get out to Buckaroo now. Finch arrives, only to find his friend missing and the town creepier than he imagined. Quickly he meets the local goth girl who local toughs harass with comments about her becoming the next Butcher, the guy who runs the local serial killer souvenir shop, and the local sheriff. Sheriff Crane, who knew Carroll, Finch's friend, was also looking for the missing man, and the two go to meet the person Carroll was in touch with: Nailbiter Warren, who is free and living back in town. The first issue is wonderfully atmospheric, with gorgeous dark art from Mike Henderson. This first issue works very differently than Cyclops did; while we only get sketches of the characters (well wrought ones; I'm curious to see more about Finch's past and his anger issues, for instance), this issue establishes mood and setting perfectly. Buckaroo is going to be as much a character as any of the people in this series, and it is the thing I feel like I know the best after this first issue. And frankly, that's a character that made gooseflesh break out on my arms, which for a horror comic, is a very good sign.

The Sixth Gun #40
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Brian Hurtt

I feel bad that I haven't written about The Sixth Gun more. I've commented about other books that fall in a similar range, a book that is so consistently good that I don't reach out and address it as I should. Frankly, as we run down to the end of the series, I'll probably do a full on recommended reading for it, but for now, let's look at issue #40. For those unfamiliar, The Sixth Gun is a weird western that follows six magical guns that can bring about the apocalypse, and those who bear them, some trying to destroy the guns, some trying to use them for their own nefarious purposes. After most of our heroes were killed over the past few issues, those few remaining, Beckie Montcrief (the bearer of the Sixth Gun), Drake Sinclair (the bearer of four of the other six guns), and Nidawi (bearer of the spirit of the shaman Screaming Crow), are being chased by serpent men and Jesup, the bearer of the Fifth Gun and servant of Griselda, the Grey Witch, who plans to use the guns to remake the world. It's another brutal issue, where more of our heroes fall by the wayside, and features a great battle between Jesup and Drake. Drake is becoming more and more affected by the guns he bears, and when Jesup gets his hands on a couple of them, things turn badly for Drake. Series artist Brian Hurtt does a tremendous job in the scene where Drake must face down the golems created by the Fourth Gun. Becky's use of the Sixth Gun to travel back in time to talk to her fallen friend, Gord Cantrell, to learn what he knew of the guns is poignant and painful, as Gord knows the only reason Becky would be coming to him in this form. With only ten issues left before the finale, The Sixth Gun continues to ramp up the tension, with the supernatural elements all coming together to what I'm sure is going to one final great battle between good and evil.

Oh, and a couple general notes before I go:

- I was still recovering from a wonderful and exhausting Free Comic Book Day last week (thanks to everyone who came out and made it an amazing day), so I didn't take notes as I was reading my books and thus don't have the info to write a full review here, but you should all check out Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour. Deep South crime done amazingly; if you liked Scalped, Aaron's last crime book, this is well worth checking out.

- With network upfronts now hitting, we have seen not only the renewal of the two current major network comic book based series, Arrow and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, but the pick up of five more: iZombie, Flash, Constantine, Gotham, and Marvel's Agent Carter. The trailers for two of these have hit, and I enjoyed both quite a bit. I remain optimistic about Gotham, and Donal Logue was born to play Harvey Bullock, but Constantine knocked me off my feet. There's a clear reverence for the source material, the opening shot of Ravenscar Asylum shows that right off the bat, and Matt Ryan looks like the DC Direct John Constantine action figure come to life. And he's British! I know three minutes can't tell you too much about a series, but that was a fine three minutes, and I'm on the hook for this one, no doubt.

Recommended Reading for 4/25: Batman: The Cult

Some stories take on a life of their own and live forever. Batman has his share of these: Dark Knight Returns, Year One, A Death in The Family, Long Halloween, and Knightfall to name a few. Then there are stories that are simply stories of the month; perfectly fine stories but not going to go down in the annals of history. And then there is an odd category that falls somewhere in between, a story that is resonant, that at the time sees to do something new, or different, or momentous, and is something big at one point, and then slowly falls out of that favor or canon. Batman: The Cult is one of those stories. I took a straw poll of some of my customers, and while many had heard of it vaguely, very few aside from fans who were fans at the time or hardcore Batman fans like me, had actually read it. So I decided to talk about it today, both because it is a great comic, and because it looks like certain elements of it are coming around again.

Batman: The Cult, with a script by Jim Starlin and art by horror comics legend Bernie Wrightson,  is a dark story. It came out on the heels of Dark Knight Returns (DKR) in 1988, so it was directly in the shadow of that story, and matches it in format, as a four issue prestige format series. It's not a perfect Batman story, and has some controversial elements in regards to its portrayal of Batman, but when you think about its timing, that was a big deal. This isn't twenty years after Frank Miller and we're still treading water. This is a story that takes this new Darker Knight and really breaks him down, both thematically and literally. It isn't directly a sequel or knock off of DKR, but a story telling a Batman story from that with its own mature edge, and exploring themes that Starlin is comfortable with (Although I will admit there is a clear attempt to tie in to DKR, by having Batman more or less build that Batmobile-tank from that story in here, for good or ill depending on how you feel about those kind of things).

The story of The Cult centers around a new villain in Batman's world, Deacon Blackfire. He is the leader of the titular cult, a possible immortal who bends people to his will, and has a frightening agenda of conquest, using his devotees to kill any criminal, no matter how small the offense. If you're at all familiar with Jim Starlin's writing, or have read any of the commentary I've made on his work on Warlock, you'll know Starlin has a real issue with organized religion, and while this story isn't as heavy handed as Dreadstar, Infinity Crusade, or his recent work with DC, Blackfire is the sort of religious figure that Starlin writes about, the ones who use religion to nothing but benefit themselves. He's not a particularly complex villain, as he is Ra's al Ghul from Batman Begins without any of the subtlety brought by Liam Neeson's performance. He freakin' bathes in human blood once a month to maintain his immortality! There's no sympathy to be found for the Deacon; he's just a bad guy.

The story opens with an extended hallucination, and pretty soon we find Batman tied up and being tortured and conditioned by Blackfire. We get a flashback to how Batman came to be in this predicament, and pretty soon, Blackfire breaks Batman and turns him into one of his mind controlled slaves. Its not easy material, and while it isn't a mature readers book, its not something I'd give to a little kid. Wrightson's art is especially effective in some of the more horrific hallucination sequences, and his vision of Gotham's sewers are clearly sewers but still have the gothic vibe; only Gotham City would have overly designed sewers.

What was different here, and is different than many other interpretations of Batman since, is that Batman is broken here. There's no way to deny it: at the end of the first issue, Deacon Blackfire wins, and if not for the rogue actions of one of his cult members later, he would have kept Batman under his thumb. I often see people comment that the Batman in comics now, at least since Grant Morrison, has more or less been a Batgod, brilliant and unstoppable. This is not that Batman. He's a very fragile, very human figure.

Another character presented with a more well rounded interpretation than was usually seen at the time was Jason Todd. Yes, the infamous second Robin, the one everyone hated so much they voted to have the Joker kill him, was Robin at the time of The Cult. And Jason acts heroically throughout the story. He is clever, sneaking into the sewers and following Batman until the right moment to save him, and supports Batman throughout the entire ordeal. As a matter of fact, he doesn't act particularly bratty at all. This might be viewed as out of character for Jason at the time, but it was probably his most heroic moment in his entire career as Robin, and it was a nice bit to give him right before he was, well, unceremoniously killed.

The story progresses to a point where Gotham is taken over by Blackfire and his cult, and again we get story elements similar to DKR. Gotham belongs to Blackfire as it seems to belong to the Mutant gang at the beginning of DKR, and even moreso, since Blackfire has made public pronouncements on TV saying so. He's clearly a madman, but people still seem to be siding with him; this is again Starlin's anti-religion theme coming out, showing how the sheep are lead by a mad shepherd. Naturally, Batman wins in the end, and Blackfire is defeated, but Starlin ties things up a bit too neatly and the ramifications are never dealt with.

The thing that makes this book controversial in some circles of Batman fans, and the key point in any real discussion, is that Starlin breaks pretty much all the rules of Batman throughout it. Batman starts using, and training Robin to use, guns, even if they're just loaded with tranq darts. And more damning is the fact that Batman kills. Not just while under Deacon Blackfire's mind control, although he assuredly does there, but after he has defeated Blackfire (and his entire cult, with nothing more than Robin, a Battank, and his own two fists), he lets the mob that has now turned on the mad preacher tear him limb from limb and simply walk away.

If you're at all familiar with Batman as a character (and if you're reading this blog, I have to imagine you are), the main thing you know about Batman is that he DOES NOT KILL. If he did, would you imagine the Joker would be around today? Starlin had a very loose interpretation of this in his time writing the Batman titles. This wasn't the first time Batman just let someone die; in Ten Nights of the Beast, Batman locks up the titular villain, the KGBeast, in the sewers, and leaves him to suffocate, starve, or die of thirst (as I think about it, a lot of Starlin's Batman stories have sewers in them). And at the end of A Death in the Family, Batman seems as close to killing Joker as he ever is. This stuff is very problematic to anyone who conceives of Batman as someone who holds life sacred. Starlin seems to view Batman's code more flexibly than pretty much any writer before or after, even moreso than Miller, which is saying something. It makes me more than a bit itchy, I admit.

While so much of the story leaves you scratching your head or possibly irritated, the art is completely entrancing. Bernie Wrightson is one of the modern masters of comic book art, and a true master of horror. His Batman is one whose cape is alive and swirling. The horror of Deacon Blackfire's hanging corpse room is palpable. The action is smooth, with a Batman who moves at times like an acrobat and at times like a heavyweight boxer. The final battle between Batman and the cult is one of the most stunning Batman battles ever visually. The only thing that might have made it better was if it was presented in black and white; I've always thought Wrightson's work looks better in black and white.

I really sat back after looking this story over again, and thought about whether or not to recommend it, or to talk about it in a more general sense. It's not exactly the kind of story I usually recommend, since I clearly have some issues with how it's told and with the interpretation of Batman. But it is an interesting story, and lives in its world completely; there are no half measures here. It's a great story for debate, about its relative merits and what it says about Batman as a character. Also, it will be worth it because, if you've read the second issue of Batman: Eternal, I think we're going to be seeing aspects of this story showing up there. I won't say anymore, but I think between the first page of Eternal and a hint in that second issue, Batman may still have to meet Deacon Blackfire in the new DC Universe.

The four issues of Batman: The Cult are available as back issues, and a trade of the series is currently in print.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 4/9

All New X-Men #25
Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: David Marquez & many others

Issue 25 has often felt like an artificial anniversary issue to me. "hey, look, we're a quarter of the way to issue one hundred! Good for us!" Then again, in a day where there are next to no books on the rack from the big two anywhere near issue one hundred, maybe it means more now. But All-New X-Men takes that anniversary issue and does something very cool with it. A mysterious figure confronts Hank McCoy, the Beast, in his bedroom, and spends the entire issue giving him glimpses of possible futures he has either created or destroyed by bringing the original X-Men to the present. Each of these possible futures is illustrated by a different artist, and holy cow are there some great artists! Bruce Timm does two pages of Jean Grey, one a montage of her past and one a dark future. David Mack draws the fall of Cyclops, Skottie Young a Monster Iceman, and Art Adams a feral Beast. JG Jones draws a beautiful two page spread of a much more optimistic future, and Jill Thompson gives us some X-Women in space. Two of the indy creators involved did two of my favorite pieces: Maris Wicks provides a two page history of the Colossus/Kitty Pryde relationship from its beginning to its inevitable end, and Jason Shiga draws "Scott + Logan: BFFs Forever," which is as funny as it sounds. There are far more creators involved for me to list them all, but each provide something different. Plus, despite me thinking that there's more to the end of the issue than meets the eye, it seems the cosmos is showing up at Hank McCoy's bedside to just call him a jackass, so the Marvel Universe itself agrees with my current assessment of the character, so I feel pretty good about that.

Batman: Eternal #1
Story: Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV
Art: Jason Fabok

It's been a few years since DC did one of its weekly comics (Trinity would technically be the last one, but the biweekly schedules for Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost made them an ad hoc weekly following up Blackest Night), and within the next couple months we'll be getting two. The first is the one I've been excited for, Batman: Eternal, a series that looks to change the face of Gotham as we know it. If the first page is to be believed, it will. After page one, which shows a broken Batman in a ravaged Gotham, we flashback to the present, where we see Jason Bard arrive in Gotham. If you know Jason Bard,well, good for you, for the rest of you, well, he's an old school Batman supporting cast member, former boyfriend of Barbara Gordon and Batman's day man from the "One Year Later" era (this was set up but rarely used after that, which was a shame). We see that corruption in the GCPD is not exactly a thing of the past in Gordon's regime, and then we get a fun action scene with Jim Gordon and Batman fighting Professor Pyg. But things go horribly wrong pretty quickly, and by issue's end, Gordon has seemingly caused a major tragedy and has been arrested. But clearly there is far more to this than meets the eye. This issue does a great job to set up the series, and gives the reader a view of Gotham from the eyes of a newcomer.  I know a weekly series is a major investment, of time, of money, of space. But if the rest of the series keeps up the quality of the first issue, this is going to be an action packed Batman ride, and well worth fifty two weeks of my time, and yours.

Now I have a question to you, my loyal readers, one I probably should have asked last week: Who would like to see weekly, in depth analysis of Batman: Eternal? Page by page analysis with references to appearing characters and plot as the series builds? If you want that, let me know in the comments section.

Lumberjanes #1
Story: Noelle Stevenson & Grace Ellis
Art: Brooke Allen

Lumberjanes is one of those books that you want to describe with a cutesy little comparison to two other things, in this case Buffy the Vampire Slayer goes to summer camp. But the good thing about this book is its clearly more than just someone who took two ideas and squeezed them together. A group of girls are away at Lumberjane Camp for the summer, and by the end of the first issue have fought kitsune (three eyed Japanese fox creatures), seen a bear woman, and been yelled at by the girl in charge of their bunk. Mal, Molly, April, Ripley, and Jo each get a moment or two that helps us understand who they are, from Ripley's charging into battle hellbound for leather, or April's taking notes on the surroundings and the creatures. After Jen, their councilor, catches them coming in after hours, they get brought to the head of the camp, Rosie, who resembles a famous historical character of the same name. Clearly she knows something about the surrounding woods that the councilors don't, and she warms the girls that there's more out there than what they'd expect. It's a story about friendship, and while we don't get a lot of plot momentum, other than what seems to be set up, the set up and the characters are charming. It's another great all ages book, something I'm always looking for, and one that has  a strong female cast, which as the uncle of nine and six year old nieces is a big plus. While the mystery of what's going on in the woods and the cryptic words of the kitsune and interesting, I have a feeling it's the characters that are going to keep readers coming back for more.