Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 8/31

Deadpool V Gambit #4
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Danilo Beyruth & Cris Peter

There have been a lot of groups of mutant villain henchmen over the years (if you want to learn more about them, check out Dan Grote's posts here and here). And when there are that many members of a team whose main purpose is to hench for some big bad, there's a good chance that those characters are one note characters. So it's interesting when writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker pull back from the comedic caper that has been the first three issues of Deadpool V Gambit to spend pretty much the entire fourth issue not focusing on either of their leads, but instead telling the story of Scrambler. Scrambler is a member of the Marauders, the group that works for Mr. Sinister, but that isn't even important to know for this issue. Acker & Blacker start the story off by establishing the basics, that Scramber was a bad guy who fought the X-Men and who has tried to go straight. Acker and Blacker make us care about Kim Il Sung, a villain who has had very little development before this. Not only do they logically update his power set, which is trickier than you'd think, but they also give him a love interest, a family, and a logical desire to be a better person for them. I encountered Acker & Blacker through The Thrilling Adventure Hour, which is one of the funniest things, well, ever, and the earlier issues of this series have been lighter in tone. Even their Thunderbolts work, which had something of a darker tone, had a large portion of humor to it. And while this issue isn't grim (the reason Scrambler has it in for Gambit and Deadpool spins out of a scene that is actually pretty darn funny), this issue is much more a character study. We see Scrambler at his lowest, then his best, ans then dragged down back to the lowest by situations beyond his control. It's a really solid single issue in the middle of a mini-series, and while the series' two leads are pretty much incidental, it doesn't feel like something completely outside the scope of the series. There's a big reveal at the end of the issue, actually, that casts the events of the series in a completely different light. If you've been suffering from Gambit withdrawal since he hasn't been a regular in a series in a while, you just need some more Deadpool, or you like to see the other side of villains, you should really check out Deadpool V Gambit.

Gotham Academy Annual #1
Story: Brenden Fletcher & Becky Cloonan
Art: Adam Archer, Msassyk, Michael Dialynas, Chris Wildgoose, Sandra Hope, Serge Lapointe, & Rob Haynes

We've been away from Gotham Academy for a few months now (unless you've been checking out the very fun Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, which you all should be), so the choice to do a one off annual to refresh current readers and introduce new ones before the new Gotham Academy: Second Semester starts was a good one, and this issue is a great jumping on point for new readers. A mysterious ailment is sweeping Gotham Academy, and our leads, the members of Detective Club, are split down the middle on what they think is responsible: Pomeline, always looking for a magical explanation, thinks it's a vampire, while Colton believes visiting professor Derek Powers is behind this. So Colton takes Kyle, and Pomeline takes Tristan, and Maps is left trapped in the middle. We get to see Olive, who is usually in the center of everything, on the sidelines in this issue, which allows the other characters to really stand out. What this issue does, which is a great example of what Gotham Academy does best, is balance the character work with the mystery and the macabre, while also tying into the deep mythology of Batman as a character. Note I didn't say the history of Batman, as what this issue ties into is actually the future of Batman. If you're at all familiar with Batman Beyond, either the animated series or the comics that have been released to tie into it, you know the name Derek Powers and know that no good will come of it. Also returning this issue is Warren McGinnis, introduced back in issue four of the series, who also has ties to the Batman Beyond universe. There's ealso an appearance from a supernatural one-off Bat villain, a character I never thought would pop up again, which is something that just fills me with joy; no other series from either of the Big Two embraces the crazy history of comics like Gotham Academy does. But what's even better is that if you're unfamiliar with any and all of that, nothing of the issue is lost on you. Instead you get two interlocking mysteries featuring two sets of likable protagonists. Pomeline is at her most demanding, and Colton at his most slick, but we get hints that there's more to Colton than we've seen before; of all the regular cast, he's the one who's gotten the least development so far, more or less being the campus ne'er-do-well, so it's nice that we're beginning to see more of his personality and his backstory come out. There are multiples artists across this issue, but fortunately Rob Haynes did breakdowns across the whole issue so the art has a consistent feel, but each plotline has a distinct look. Gotham Academy Annual #1 is an exciting romp across the grounds of the titular Academy and a treat for Batman fans of all ages and knowledge.

Suicide Squad: War Crimes Special
Story John Ostrander
Art: Gus Vazquez, Carlos Rodriguez, & Gabe Eltaeb

Now THIS is the Suicide Squad. I haven't written as much about the Suicide Squad as I feel like is deserved for how much I love the concept and the characters on this blog, mostly because the series as it's been running since I started writing here has rarely been a book I really loved. But this one-shot, written by the man who redefined the Squad in the '80s and a writer I have written a lot about, John Ostrander, hits every note that makes a good Suicide Squad story. Let's count them down, shall we?

1) It has great characters and character moments: The Squad in this issue is mostly made up of staples of the Squad: Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Rick Flag from the original series; Harley Quinn and El Diable from the New 52 era; and a new member, Mad Dog, who you know is not long for the team right out front. Flag and Deadshot have a great rapport in the issue, working together, and Ostrander writes one truly funny Harley moment. But it's Boomerang who Ostrander really captures. The arrogant, smarmy, easy to anger, quick to seek revenge Boomerang of those classic books is on display here, to the point that he is responsible for Mag Dog's death just because the bounty hunter rubbed him the wrong way. Boomerang is often played as comic relief or the team punching bag, but Ostrander remembers that he is a nasty piece of work at heart.

2) Interesting foes: Ostrander gave the Suicide Squad some really interesting enemies in his original run. The international mercenaries known as the Jihad (changed to Onslaught after their first appearance) were a great collection of characters with interesting powers and looks. The Loa was another fascinating nemesis. This story introduces Strikeforce Europa, a team of European mercenaries. And while they don't exactly walk out of this unscathed, they don't feel like characters who were created simply to be disposed of; they have a backstory and work as characters who have potential.

3) Real world events effect comic book stories: There was an interview I read somewhere once that I wasn't able to find to get the exact quote where Ostrander said he stopped writing stories for Suicide Squad set in real places because it seemed like every time he did it seemed that place popped up on the news. And while recent Suicide Squad stories have taken place in real countries, they are often just using those places as a setting and not discussing the political realities. This issue takes something very real and while changing the names to protect the innocent (or to protect the publisher from libel suits), there is a reality to this story. The Secretary of Defense from the "previous administration" has been kidnapped by Strikeforce Europa to stand trial for war crimes, for starting the last "Gulf action" to benefit "Black Mountain" the private military security contractor he has worked for an with. If you have any notion of modern American politics, none of this is particularly veiled commentary on politics, and it creates an interesting mission, as the Squad must rescue him.

4) Action action and more action: Much of this issue is an elaborate heist type story, only with what the team is trying to take is a human being. We get the Squad in battle with Strikeforce Europa, with the assassin Shado, who was sent by Black Mountain to silence the Secretary of Defense before he spilled their secrets at the World Court, not to mention your standard issue security forces. You get car chases, super powered fights, and a really cool scene with Deadshot on a motorcycle. It has an excellent balance of action and character, which was the hallmark of the best Suicide Squad stories.

5) The Wall: John Ostrander created Amanda Waller, and there are very few, if any, writers who get her better than Ostrander. Whether it's giving the team a briefing with her patented hardass attitude and biting humor, or debriefing when the team gets back, and all her contact in between, this is the Waller I hear in my head when I think of best Waller moments.And I've seen people of two minds on how coldly homicidal Waller was in the recent Suicide Squad movie, but anyone with any familiarity with the character would see that her actions at the end of this issue, and the reasoning behind them, are so perfectly logical that it's one of my favorite Waller moments of all time.

Seriously folks, whether you miss the old Squad stories or are a fan of the new ones, this is a perfect gem of a Suicide Squad story that everyone should check out.

And look! Dan Grote is back, with a review featuring two of his great fan passions: the X-Men and '90s music...

X-Men ’92 #6

Story by Chris Sims & Chad Bowers

Art by Alti Firmansyah & Matt Milla

Matt often writes about how sometimes a book is so consistently good, he sometimes passes on reviewing it because there are only so many ways to say “This book is consistently good” month after month.

The same can be said for Marvel’s X-Men ’92, which is if nothing else a love letter to the 1990s animated series and the comics of the time period.

Except this issue ups the ante considerably by working in the music of the Extreme Era as well. Coming of age in the ’90s as I did, I spent my teen years a) devouring X-Men comics and b) listening to alternative radio. So to read a comic in which the X-Men work as bodyguards for Lila Cheney at a music festival that includes the Flaming Lips and the Toadies is to relive those years in their purest, most crystalized form. The only thing missing is all those Sunday afternoons I killed playing The Sims and Final Fantasy VI on the Super Nintendo.

After a prologue that brings Joss Whedon creation SWORD into the ’92-niverse, the comic opens with intergalactic rockstar Cheney joining the Lips on stage for “Race for the Prize,” complete with lettered lyrics that sent me combing through my CDs to see if I still had a copy of “The Soft Bulletin.” Even Beast is singing along, and let’s face it, he would like an up-tempo song about two scientists competing to save a dying sun.

And seriously, the Toadies? The Toadies?! Raise your hand if you’ve thought about the Toadies at any point after 1996. They’re about as ’90s as Adam X the X-Treme.

Anyway, it turns out Lila’s on Earth because there’s a bounty on her head, and she’s being hunted down by British-import robot space bounty hunter Death’s Head. Hence her asking the X-Men to act as security.

Also lurking around disguised as a be-ponytailed roadie is none other than Acolyte-slash-Upstart Fabian Cortez, whom a narration box accurately describes as having “the power to make mutants mutant harder.” Cortez amps up Cheney’s already-considerable teleportation powers amid the fight with Death’s Head, transporting herself, the X-Men, Death’s Head and SWORD’s Abigail Brand to an alienated planet populated by [spoilers].

I can’t say enough how much of this book is sold on the strength of Alti Firmansyah’s art. Chris Sims and Chad Bowers get the cheesiness of the era and what characters will make fans wistful, but Firmansyah nails the fashion, the facial expressions and the fun of what, at its worst, was a melodramatically angsty time. It doesn’t mimic the animation style of the cartoon – if anything, she seems to take her cues from “Voltron” and the Joe Madureira style of manga-light art that took hold mid-decade – but you can see that she’s having fun, and I’d love to read more of her work.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 6/22

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 10 #28
Story: Christos Gage
Art: Rebekah Isaacs & Dan Jackson

This issue of the current Buffy the Vampire Slayer season feels a lot like an episode of the TV show right before a season finale, which makes sense as this season wraps with issue #30. Buffy and her friends have been driven apart by, well, growing up (or growing down in the case of the de-aged Giles), and this is the issue where they get the band back together. People often give the character of Buffy a hard time, for being the title character but not the brains of the group, but its Buffy who has the plan this issue, and as she makes preparations, she and Spike discuss their relationship. Christos Gage does a great job, a job equal to that of Joss Whedon, of balancing the personal with the supernatural in this issue, and while we don't know what Buffy's plan is, the issue does a great job of building up the anticipation of what it is. The way Buffy and Spike interact, Buffy talking about how her instinct is to run from relationships while Spike realizing he needs to take Buffy off the pedestal he has placed her on, are mature reactions, and show signs of growth not just from the beginning of these character's live, but of this season. Meanwhile, Willow realizes that working with the army isn't going to fly anymore, and Andrew meets with his kinda-boyfriend and has a realization about himself. As I've said in other times I've talked about Buffy here, I detest Andrew as a character, but I think Christos Gage has finally had him grow up and realize exactly what he is and what he's done, to a point I don't cringe every time he enters the scene, which is a major achievement. And finally, there are Dawn and Xander, who, having been left in a hell dimension a few issues back to seal the gate from that dimension to Earth, make their trip back home. I don't know how much Rebekah Isaacs adds to the story in these issues, but the different dimensions Dawn and Xander, as well as their demon sidekicks, pass through usually only hey one panel each, but they're so well realized that if Isaacs didn't suggest at least some of them, she embraced them fully. There's even a reference to the classic explanation of parallel worlds involving shrimp, or the lack thereof. This balance, between the mundanity of Buffy and Willow (and Giles in the previous issue) dealing with their relationship woes while Dawn and Xander travel through dimensions, is a great example of what makes a Buffy story work. If you lean to heavily on the metaphor and the weird it gets overblown, and if you do nothing but everyday character stuff, you lose what makes it special. There are only two issues left in this season of Buffy, and this issue makes me really excited to see what Gage and Isaacs have planned for us.

Detective Comics #935
Story: James Tynion IV
Art: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, & Adriano Lucas

Detective Comics knows how to kick off an issue. We open to see a desperate Red Robin, Spoiler, Orphan, and a de-powerd Clayface facing down an army of Jokers. That's an opening that sure grabs your attention. We quickly learn things aren't as they seem, and we get introduced to the Belfry, the team's new headquarters, and the Mud Room, the Danger Room if it were powered by Clayface's powers. It's interesting to see that Batwoman, who is running the training session, is hard on Orphan, Spoiler, and Clayface, but leaves Red Robin alone, respecting him. It's Red Robin who is the focus of the early part of the issue, as we see him first interact with Batwoman, then Batman, and finally Spoiler; it seems that Red Robin and Spoiler are destined to be together on whichever timeline they're in, which is sweet. What's a little different is the way Tim Drake interacts with Batman. In pre-Flashpoint continuity, Tim was Robin for years before becoming Red Robin, and was an integral part of the Batman family, but in the new continuity it's not only established he was always Red Robin, but it's been said numerous times that he has kept his emotional distance from Batman and the others. Tim has frankly been one of the biggest victims of the New 52 compressed timeline and the need to come up with reasons why he's in Teen Titans and not a Bat book. This issue we see Batman reaching out to him, telling him he's welcome to come in and be a part of the family, which is a nice gesture, and we see exactly what's going on with Tim, and that he might just have a life outside Gotham and the shadow of the Bat planned, which adds a different sort of tension. Through Tim we get to see some of Spoiler and Orphan, and we also get to see what happened to Azrael and we get the return of the classic Leslie Thompkins, who is treating Azrael and who is still judging Bruce for bringing teenagers into his war; thanks for that James! Batwoman gets in another scene with her father, Jake Kane, and we get a better feeling for why the Kane family, Batman's maternal relatives, haven't been a part of his life, as Jake warns Kate away from him. "Zero Year" and Grant Morrison's Return of Bruce Wayne mini-series both established issues between the Wayne and the Kane families, but here we see it on a much more grounded and personal level, with Jake's issues not just with Bruce, but an undercurrent of resentment towards Bruce's long dead father, Thomas. While the issue has a lot of character building, it ends with an action scene (after a clever bit of Alfred's trademark snarking at Bruce), as we start to get a better idea of who is behind the vigilante hunting, the new threat called Colony. The final page is one of those classic Batman being a badass pages, which shows that Tynion also knows how to get a reader desperate to come back for more.

James Bond #7
Story: Warren Ellis
Art: Jason Masters & Guy Major

James Bond is a character right in that Warren Ellis wheelhouse. He's a hard drinking, hard smoking man with a penchant for women and brooding. The Bond Ellis writes is closer to the one in the current films and in Ian Fleming's original stories, and not the campy one of the bigger, bolder Bond movies. And while Bond is grounded, the first arc of Ellis's Bond read like one of Ellis's sci-fi stories, where he reads about something in a tech journal and extrapolates the science into a crazy sci-fi comic. And while this second arc might go the same way, this arc feels more in line with a dark spy thriller, as Bind has to rescue an undercover agent from the Turkish Consulate in America, only to have things go off the rails. The first issue sets the tone, giving us a mysterious villain who combines the typical Bond mastermind with a more physical threat, continues to build on the internal conflict in British intelligence established in the first arc, re-introduces Bond's CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter, who now has cybernetic parts because why not, and introduces the agent Bond has to retrieve, who has the absolute Bondiest Bond name I've seen in comics yet, Cadence Birdwhistle. The fight when the Turkish agents catch up to Bond and Birdwhistle is well choreographed by Jason Masters and is as brutal as anything you'd see Daniel Craig do; frankly, Bond leaves these guys in so many pieces it feels like James Bond by way of the Midnighter. But even after taking out an entire Turkish hit squad, things don't go well for Bond, as he now has to survive 24+ hours with a non-combatant and no weapon. It's a great set-up for a tense thriller, as Bond has the Turks and the mysterious villain who is laundering money through Turkey after him to silence Birdwhistle. Also, along the way, Ellis gets off a pot shot at America and guns that is sadly accurate, as Ellis is never one to shy away from making a political point; I'm frankly very curious to see if Ellis spends some time in arc three taking on the recent EU referendum, something that both fits with Bond's place in the world and Ellis's topical sense of politics and humor. James Bond is a great spy comic, one that will satisfy the appetite of long time Bond fans as well as newcomers to fiction's greatest secret agent.

Princeless- Raven: The Pirate Princess #9
Story: Jeremy Whitley
Art (Present Day): Rosy Higgins, Ted Brandt, & William Blankenship
Art (Raven's Tale): Sarah Suhng, Nicki Andrews, & William Blankenship

After last issue's confrontation between Raven Xingtao, the pirate princess, and her two usurping brothers left her old friend, and something more, Ximena badly wounded, Raven and her crew make for a nearby island where they might find someone who can help Ximena, leaving Raven to stay by the side of the woman she loves and just talk to her, to keep her on this side of life. The beginning and ending of the issue take place in the present, and while much of the page space is dedicated to the story Raven tells, we get more characterization in the frame around the main story than most comics give in a normal issue. Not only do we see Raven being tender, which has peaked out of her normally brash exterior before when it comes to Ximena, we see bits with many other members of the crew, especially Amirah, who has become a favorite character of mine, as she helps stabilize Ximena as best she can and get Raven to be with her. Also, we see the deepening of the romantic triangle brewing, as Sunshine, who has clearly had deepening crush on Raven since they met in issue one, growing resentful of Ximena's place in Raven's heart. The main story though, the one that Raven tells Ximena as she lies unconscious, is the story of how Hei Xing, Raven's ancestor and the first pirate queen, met Rong Tao, the love of her life. Jeremy Whitley conjures a world that's a little more wild, a little more full of fantasy then Raven's is; while the book is rooted in the same fairy tale world as it's progenitor, Princeless, the magic and magical creatures have been considerably less in the spin-off then the parent title, and so the demons would feel a bit out of place in a story set in the present. But in this almost fairy tale story that Raven is telling, it all fits. We see Raven takes after Hei Xing, who was full of spirit and fire, willing to fight more demons than she should be able to in order to save the life of a boy she has never met. And Rong Tao, who was a pacifist, has connections to Ximena, who is also never willing to fight. The story is a parable of balance, as Rong could not have survived being attacked by demons if Hei had not been willing to right, and Hei could never have saved her beloved horse if Rong had not had the patience to slowly dig away at the trap the demons had set. The inversion of the traditional trope, of having the female character as the fighter and the male character as the one who does not fight wasn't lost on me, and continues to show how Princeless and its related titles work to subvert expectations. All taken, it's the truest love story we've seen from this world yet, a beautiful tale of two people finding each other, whose differences make them stronger. Princeless itself has begun to explore love and relationships as well, and it feels like these titles, written with teens in mind, are going through that phase where you start questioning even more how you fit in the world and what love is. I'm curious to see what answers Raven gets as she has two very different romantic interests now, and how this story will play into what comes next.



And Dan Grote reviews the new Deadpool team-up mini-series, where Deadpool fights his soon to be fellow movie-star, Gambit, written by Matt Signal favorites, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker...

Deadpool V Gambit #1

Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker

Art: Danilo Beyruth & Cris Peter

Deadpool has nearly always been a comedic character. But for the past four years, he’s also been a foot in the door for comedians and comedy writers at Marvel, since Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn began their run post A vs. X. That paved the way for Annual stories, miniseries and backup strips from the likes of Paul Scheer (The League), Scott Aukerman (Comedy Bang Bang) and Jason Mantzoukas (Also The League), as well as Bens Acker and Blacker (The Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast), whose greatest contribution to Deadpool lore to date may be clearing up that whole multiple-narration-boxes mess from the Daniel Way run and introducing Madcap into the mix.

The Bens return with this miniseries pairing the Regeneratin’ Degenerate and the Ragin’ Cajun and revealing their hidden mutual history as con men. Apparently, this is very recent history, as a flashback to their last job takes place during the crafting of the musical “Hamilton,” which opened just last year. Now, I don’t keep up with the X-books like I used to, so I have no idea what Gambit’s been up to since he ended up a horseman of Apocalypse 10 years ago. But Deadpool’s memories, like his sexuality, allegedly, are fluid, so I’m not really planning to look too deeply into the continuity of it all.

Anywho, this miniseries reads like it was written by a pair of comedy writers riffing off each other, in so much as that’s exactly what the title characters do. In their last job, Deadpool and Gambit dressed as Spider-Man and Daredevil, respectively, and engaged in a very vocal and public superhero fight across the city, in the process stealing from criminals for a man named Chalmers. Bits abound, as Deadpool/Spider-Man tries to exorcise Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” from his head, the two try to explain why they’re fighting (Mind control? Political disagreement? They’re both on the same case, and each thinks the other is the bad guy?), Gambit/Daredevil argues the conceit of musicals with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the two learn that being beangan is when you’re vegan but also you don’t eat beans (“Wait, why not?” “I think because you don’t like beans.”).

And where were the real Spider-Man and Daredevil for all this? Apparently Peter Parker and Matt Murdock sometimes go antiquing together. They’re friends.

Artist Danilo Beyruth gets in on the fun, too. Before the fight, Deadpool/Spider-Man is drawn wearing a dress shirt and suit over his Spidey costume. The disguised Miranda has the head of Alexander Hamilton from the $10 bill superimposed on him, so he resembles a character in a JibJab video. A market full of hipster vegans is an ocean of beards and curled-up mustaches, seemingly also on the women (Sidenote: Has anyone thought to resurrect Turner D. Century lately?). And Gambit gets to blow up everything from diamonds to frying pans to a manhole cover, until Deadpool yells “Stop exploding things at me!”

Yes, we are living in an age of peak Deadpool. Besides his solo ongoing, there’s the Spider-Man/Deadpool teamup book, and a new Deadpool & the Mercs for Money ongoing is starting. But if you don’t mind stretching your DP budget just a little bit further, Deadpool V Gambit is pretty funny and worth a read.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 3/2

Bart Simpson Comics #100
Story: Nathan Kane & Ian Boothby
Art: Nina Matsumoto, Andrew Pepoy, & Art Villanueva

The final issue of Bart Simpson Comics came out a couple weeks ago, and as it sold out from my store quickly, it took me a bit to track one down, and I'm glad I did, as this issue does everything right that a Simpsons related comic should. Simpsons related comics feel like they're geared for two groups: younger readers (tween to teen) who are just getting into The Simpsons and want to see big, crazy stories, and die-hards like me who pick up all the random crazy references to classic episodes that litter the best stories. The basic story of this issue is one of the outlandish ones that tend to work better in the comic than the show: Bart stumbles into Professor Frink's time machine and after visiting the future inadvertently brings back an immortal cyborg Mr. Burns who conquers the Springfield of the present. The story is a comedy of Bart trying to find a way to stop Mr. Burns's conquest with the help of various Springfield residents, and has an ending that the show couldn't pull off because of how utterly sci-fi it is. There's also a brief moment where cyber-Burns actually kills Bartman, and Bart goes to heaven and has an actually very touching moment with Edna Krabappel, his former teacher, reminding us that Simpsons stories are at their best when there's a real emotional kernel at the heart of them; it's also a sweet moment of closure between two characters with a long history who couldn't have that moment due to the passing of Mrs. K's voice actor. But aside from all that mushy stuff, this issue is PACKED with references to Simpsons episodes. The time travel montage has scenes from the best Simpsons time travel episodes. Cyber-Burns initially appeared in the episode where Maggie finds Burns's teddy bear, Bobo. Bartman teams up with Mr. Burns's superheroic alter-ego, Fruit Bat Man. And in a moment that made me laugh out loud, we see Hans Moleman as leader of the molemen. The issue celebrates everything that has made The Simpsons a pop culture touchstone for over twenty years, and is a great send off to Bart Simpson Comics.

Beyond Belief #3
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur, & Mauricio Wallace

It's been a while, but Frank and Sadie Doyle, everyone's favorite bon vivant exorcists and mediums are back in a new issue of Beyond Belief. After last issue, where the Doyles befriended imaginary friend Mr. Fuzzyface, the Doyles are still in the haunted neighborhood they've been stuck, now having to save Sadie's friend Donna Donner from being sacrificed by the local cult. As with any story of Frank and Sadie, the highlight is how cool they are under pressure. The Bens (Acker and Blacker) write the Doyles as the wittiest people you'll ever meet, and they happily deploy that wit when confronted by knife bearing cultists, ancient druids, and pretty much anything else. Throughout the entire issue, the Doyles wield a simple stick as if its a magic wand, and are continually told it isn't, but the magic isn't in the stick, but in how clever the Doyles are. The Doyles always win because they outsmart their opponents, although you can tell how early this is in the continuity of Beyond Belief stories that Frank is ready to roll up his sleeves and, as Sadie says, "engage in fisticuffs with that statuesque gentleman." And by statuesque, she means a man made out of rock. Credit must as with previous issues go to artist Phil Hester for making the monsters, be they tree men, stone men, or ancient gods, truly frightening; it would be easy enough, in a tongue in cheek world, to make the monsters not that scary. Hester makes them something that makes you worried for the Doyles. I also absolutely loved the twist in this issue, the little bit of social commentary, that in fact the tree monster isn't actually an evil monster demanding blood sacrifice to empower those who worship it, but is an ancient druid who is using the blood magic to keep dark gods imprisoned, and it switched to telling people they would earn power through the sacrifices because most people care more about their own greed than the fate of the world. Social commentary isn't exactly the centerpiece of Beyond Belief, but I like the point that's being made, and it's being made in a funny and sadly accurate way. There's only one issue of this mini-series left, and the Doyles are now stuck with a dark god and no booze left, so I expect an issue with a quick fight and copious drinking ahead of us, but no matter what happens, I'm sure the Doyles will handle it with their usual grace and proper grammar.

Stumptown #9
Story: Greg Rucka
Art: Justin Greenwood & Ryan Hill

It's never easy being a private investigator, and it's especially difficult for Dex Parios, protagonist of Stumptown. What should have been an easy gig, picking up shipments of designer coffee beans from the airport and delivering them to the man who owns them, has turned into a true mess, as two of the brewers competitors have been coming at her to get each time a shipment comes in, and now with the last shipment arriving, Dex has been kidnapped by one of these competitors, and her ne'er-do-well sister, Fuji, has been kidnapped by the other. Dex deals with the rich Mr. Laidlaw easily enough, and once shes out, she begins preparing to pick up the last shipment and to put everything and everyone in their place. The climax of the issue has Dex gathering all the parties in her office, in a scene reminiscent of the great P.I. stories of old, like  The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, and learning exactly who's who and what their motives are. But after a tense standoff, with guns drawn by multiple parties, Dex winds up pulling on over on the bad guys, and retrieving Fuji, who honestly she might have been better off without. Fuji winds up being a P.I. story femme fatale, with an agenda of her own and willing to leave Dex with little to show for her efforts on this case. Fuji has been a selfish, lousy sister throughout the arc, but this issue shows that its a lot more than sibling rivalry that has kept her out of Dex's life. The last panel is pretty much the ultimate P.I. noir ending, with the hero walking away from the train that the femme fatale left on; the only thing that would have made it more perfect is if it was pouring rain. Greg Rucka knows his detective stories down to the letter, and only a writer of that skill could make a story about designer coffee beans a truly exciting detective yarn. I'm looking forward to where he takes Dex next.

And for Dan Grote's pick of the week, we see reunion of the recent Daredevil creative team in the new Black Widow series...

Black Widow #1

Story by Chris Samnee and Mark Waid

Art by Samnee and Matt Wilson

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow is easily one of the most important characters and definitely the most important female character. Yet the studio has made no plans for a solo film spotlighting the Russian spy turned SHIELD agent.

This book shows what a damn shame that is.

Black Widow #1 is a Mission: Impossible-style action film condensed into 20 pages. It is largely wordless, allowing the art room to breathe and for Natasha to escape from seemingly insurmountable peril on nearly every page.

And when your art team is Chris Samnee and Matt Wilson, whose lines and colors made Daredevil one of the best books of the past five years, you want the art to breathe. Samnee gets a co-writing credit with fellow Daredevil alum Mark Waid, who added the sparse dialogue, so really this is Samnee’s show.

And he does not disappoint. Natasha – branded a traitor by SHIELD at the outset - fights an office full of agents, leaps from the helicarrier, steals a jetpack in midair, shows off her ballet skills, commandeers a motorcycle and causes explosion after explosion. Nat is hypercompetent, but by the end you can feel her exhaustion as the last agent just won’t give up and she’s forced to make a choice.

Pages are panel-packed but never crowded, and while some of the action could have benefited from more space, splashes are used sparingly. The scene in which Nat leaps from the helicarrier gets the most real estate - a double-page spread - which serves both to show how small she is compared with the monolith she’s escaping and to provide room for the credits against the New York skyline.

We don’t know why Nat is now an enemy of SHIELD. We don’t know what she stole. Those are mysteries for later issues. What we do know is that this first issue was shiny and full of boomsy-booms and we want more of that in our lives.

P.S., for you Deadpool fans, this issue features a cameo by SHIELD Agent/Life Model Decoy/occasional Wade conscience Emily Preston. No Agent Adsit though.

Thursdays With Wade Interlude: Revisiting John Ostrander's Deadpool

Today's reading: Heroes for Hire #10-11, Apr.-May 1998
Story: John Ostrander
Art: Pascual Ferry, Jaime Mendoza, & Joe Rosas (#10), Scott Kolins, Dan Pansonian, & Joe Rosas (#11)
Guest writer for this column: Matt Lazowitz

So, it might be surprising to those who have come to comics in the past ten years or so, but there was a time when Deadpool wasn't as ubiquitous as Batman or Wolverine, with dozens of guest shots a month. Early on, during the time that Joe Kelly's run was taking place, a Deadpool guest appearance was a fairly rare thing, outside of his recurring role in X-Force. So, I'm giving Dan the week off so I can discuss one of those early guest appearances, one that's important for a couple of reasons that tie into recent Deadpool history.

First a little history: as Dan has talked about, Deadpool's own series debuted during the time of Heroes Reborn, when many of Marvel's seminal heroes were shunted off to a pocket dimension inside a blue rubber ball being carried around by Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman's son (Hey, he's Franklin Richards. You tell him he can't use his god-like powers how he wants). So with the Avengers and Fantastic Four off the playing field, and the X-Men more hated and feared than ever before, some other heroes needed to step up. And so Danny Rand (Iron Fist) and Jim Hammond (the original Human Torch) took their considerable holdings in the Oracle Corporation and established a new Heroes for Hire, superheroes who were being paid to superhero, with Danny's old pal Luke Cage front and center. A Defenders-like non-team, the cast rotated, but included such characters as She-Hulk, Hercules, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), and the first female White Tiger, although she's not the same one from Ultimate Spider-Man.

Heroes for Hire was written by John Ostrander, hence my interest in the series. For those of you who haven't read any of my numerous pieces spotlighting his work, Ostrander became a household name in the 80s and 90s with both creator owned work, like his creator owned bounty hunter series Grimjack, and work for DC, including Suicide Squad, Firestorm, Manhunter, and Spectre, to name just a few. By this point in his career, he was doing a lot of work for Marvel, not just Heroes for Hire, but X-Man, Punisher, and a series of mini-series about Bishop of the X-Men. The art for most of the Heroes for Hire series was provided by Pascual Ferry, whose other works include a couple issues of Mr. Miracle with Grant Morrison, Adam Strange with Andy Diggle, Ultimate Fantastic Four with Mike Carey, and Action Comics with a guy you might be familiar with if you've been reading "Thursdays with Wade," Joe Kelly. One of these issues is a Ferry, while the other has art from Scott Kolins, probably best known for his partnership with Geoff Johns on The Flash.

One of the reasons to call out these issues now actually ties in to last week's new Deadpool #1. There, Deadpool comments that the Heroes for Hire were the first team he ever joined. While that is actually a reference to one of the excellent flashback issues from the previous Dedapool series, it is actually true! Yes, Deadpool appeared in a couple issues of Secret Defenders (along with Luke Cage, who never brings it up again) prior to this, but that isn't a team, just a random group of character Dr. Strange would summon to solve a particular problem, and Deadpool wasn't trying to be a hero back then. Here he's in full superhero mode (or as much as Wade ever can be).

By this point in the series, the other heroes have just returned from the pocket universe, but the Heroes for Hire are still up and running. There are a lot of subplots running, as Ostrander is a slow burn kind of plotter, with stuff like Iron Fist summoning K'un Lun to return to the mortal plane and Scott Lang having issues with his daughter, Cassie, long before she would become a superhero herself, but I'm going to stick to the main, and Deadpool relevant, plot.

The current assembled team at the beginning of this issue is made up of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and their often partners Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Colleen is a martial artist and her partner in private investigation is Misty Knight, a trained P.I. with a cybernetic arm who is Iron Fists's on-again/off-again girlfriend. Jim Hammond calls the team together to tell them that they have been hired to stop a rogue biochemist, Professor Wolfgang Hessler, from selling his new bioweapon to the highest bidder. The thing that makes this a matter for super people is that Hessler has fled to his native country, Symkaria, home of international mercenaries Silver Sable and the Wild Pack, and Sable is keeping him protected, using a special Wild Pack composed of then-reformed Spider-Man villain Sandman, mercenary for hire Paladin, the former Bucky called Nomad (in whose comic Deadpool made his very first non-X universe appearance), and the martial artist known as the Cat. Cage is concerned that, with most of their regular team members away, they'll be underpowered for the mission, but Hammond assures them that another agent will meet them at the private jet to Symkaria. Oh, and all of this is being observed secretly by the series's main villain, the Master of the World, former Alpha Flight nemesis and a weird combination of Dr. Doom and Vandal Savage, who isn't as cool as either of them and has the least imaginative villain name of all time. More with him later.

When the Heroes arrive at their private airstrip, they find waiting for them... Indiana Jones! But no, hat's not Indy, it's Deadpool using his handy image inducer. You see, Hammond contacted Landau, Luckman, & Lake, and they sent their newest employee, Deadpool (wait, Deadpool wasn't working for LL&L last column. When did that happen? Keep reading this column to find out). Deadpool immediately starts to introduce himself to the Heroes, starting with a joke that would never fly today, addressing Colleen and Misty as Soy-N-Peppa, then tries to be a bro with Luke Cage. And when he gets to Iron Fist, he literally falls over laughing, commenting about Fist's footwear, calling them ballet slippers. When the Heroes get on the plane and start to take off without him, Deadpool quickly joins them and says he's trying to be a hero now, and keeping up with the George Lucas theme, starts making Star Wars jokes, asking to be taught by Obi-Wan Rand and all sorts of, "Use the Force, Luke," jokes. So Ostrander definitely has the Deadpool patter down.

Arriving at Symkaria, the team finds they must scale a treacherous mountain to arrive at the Monastery of St. Eobar's, where Sable has set Hessler up with a lab. Deadpool complains, makes some meta-commentary about how the team has no fliers and they need a better balance of super powers, and then simply teleports away, pretty much ruining the element of surprise. In the monastery, Paladin and Nomad are talking. Well Paladin is talking, and Nomad is replying with grunts and whistles. After Paladin makes a then-topical joke about Millennium, Chris Carter's nearly forgotten follow-up to The X-Files, Deadpool teleports in and he fighting commences.

The Heroes for Hire arrive during this initial fight, as do the rest of the Wild Pack, and issue ten ends with the two teams facing off. But that's after one final revelation. It turns out Nomad wasn't speaking because he isn't Nomad; he is, instead, a disguised Madcap! This is the first meeting between Deadpool and Madcap! While they haven't been together a lot on page, Madcap is one of the team of Deadpools in the current series, and was also, thanks to a retcon by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, the second voice in Deadpool's head throughout Daniel Way's entire run on the series, so it's become a pretty important first meeting.

Issue eleven starts out with the classic superhero vs. superhero fight. The splash page is Deadpool and Madcap face to face, Deadpool talking about his healing factor and how that means he'll win and Madcap saying he doesn't feel any pain so that's why he'll win. The fight seems pretty evenly matched, but the Wild Pack slowly takes out the Heroes for Hire, leaving only Deadpool up, and then Wade heroically teleports away, Mighty Brave Sir Robin style (yes, that was a Python joke, but it's relevant, trust me).

When Iron Fist comes to after the Cat took him out, he's imprisoned with a still unconscious Cage shackled to a wall and Misty and Colleen nowhere in sight., Silver Sable arrives to take him to meet Prof. Hessler and talk, laving Cage alone, who promptly breaks free and reveals that he has been working for the Master of the World. It's been years since I read any of the issues of this series other than the reread of these two, so I don't remember if this is where we learned Cage was a mole for the bad guy, but he breaks out of his cell to go and take Hessler off the board, as it turns out Hessler was working for the Master through a series of blinds before he ran away.

We cut to Colleen and Misty, who are being guarded by Madcap, who is basically doing the entire Spanish Inquisition bit from Monty Python's Flying Circus for them (see, I told you the Python reference was relevant) whether they like it or not. There's a knock on the door, and when Madcap opens it, it's Madcap! No, it's actually Deadpool using his image inducer again, and he coldcocks Madcap, frees Colleen and Misty, and they escape, bumping into Cage, and together they head off to find Iron Fist.

But when they find Iron Fist, he has been talking to Silver Sable and Hessler, and it turns out Hessler didn't know he was making a weapon for his previous employer, who Danny is surprised to find was a subsidiary of his own Oracle Corporation; seems Sable had a good reason to attack when the Heroes for Hire showed up. He was doing research, and when he found out it was being weaponized, he ran off to where he knew he was safe and where he could design an antidote to his research. At that point, usually the two super tams would join forces, but the Master pops up in hologram form and tells Cage to put a mind control device on Hessler, blowing Luke's cover. Deadpool starts shooting Cage (showing he's not exactly the most heroic of dudes yet), and the fight commences again. When Madcap and Paladin arrive, they see a fight going on, and immediately start attacking whichever Hero is closest, not knowing that Luke is the only real threat. Finally, the Master teleports in, takes Luke and the now mind-controlled Hessler, and leaves the Heroes for Hire high and dry. It's not exactly an auspicious ending for Deadpool's first outing with a real superhero team.

So, what exactly have we learned in these two issues about Deadpool? Not much, but hey, that's cool. It's still a fun two-parter, Wade gets to joke around, and we get some stuff that will later become important to Deadpool. So, it's well worth reading if you have the chance.

And if you want to read it, as well as the other early Deadpool appearances I mentioned here (Nomad, Secret Defenders), as well as some early appearances in X-Force, Wolverine, and some other random issues, they are all available in the Deadpool Classics Companion trade.

Next week, Dan's back with issue fourteen of Deadpool, where the fallout from "The Drowning Man" hits the proverbial fan. See you then.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 9/2

Beyond Belief #2
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur, & Mauricio Wallace

Now that the live stage show and podcast of The Thrilling Adventure Hour have ceased on a regular basis, it's great to have the comics return to help give me my fix of all my favorite characters. After helping their friend Donna get her house clear of ghosts, mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle head across the street to help a little girl named joy and her imaginary friend Mr. Fuzzypants deal with a monster problem of their own. The story is a perfect Beyond Belief, with clever plots and wheels within wheels storytelling; there are the imaginary friends of imaginary friends, monsters born of monster hunters. And the Doyles are as ever brave, not afraid of anything (the fact that they're gleefully drunk as ever doesn't hurt). AS with the other TAH comics, the story takes advantage of the visual medium in a way the podcast cannot, with Frank fighting creatures instead of simply talking them into defeat like the monster hunter he was before he met Sadie and settled down. Artist Phil Hester is one of comics best, an artist who brings his A game to anything he does, be it superheroes or monsters, but this issue he stretches his artistic legs. Some of the pages of the story are told by joy and Mr. Fuzzypants, and for that narrative, the backgrounds shift to a childlike crayon design, which gives it the perfect feeling of childlike imagination. While the Doyles are dealing with all this, we find out a little more about the neighborhood Donna has moved into, as we see a party going on down the block, attended by Joy's parents, among others, and well, I don't go to a lot of parties, but I didn't think human sacrifice was a part of most get togethers, and when things don't go as planned, well, let's just say it looks like the Doyles will be coming to the rescue again. As always, these horror tinged precedings are told with the usual TAH tongue planted firmly in cheek, balancing the scary with Doyles usual dry and urbane wit. I will happily read anything Thrilling Adventure related, and fortunately, Bne Acker and Ben Blacker continue to give their fans quality stories of walks in realms Beyond Belief.

Daredevil #18
Story: Mark Waid
Art: Chris Samnee & Matthew Wilson

All good things must come to an end, and so ends Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's impressive run on Daredevil. After over four years, Waid bows out this issue, having written two volumes of the series, of which Samnee drew the majority. Waid has done an impressive job of balancing the brooding with the funny, moving Daredevil away from the character that Frank Miller crafted, the tormented Catholic who loses everyone he loves, and into a character who looks on his life with a bit more of a smile. It's not to say that Daredevil's life is easy or the comic is a comedy. Going into this issue, Matt Murdock, Daredevil has rarely been in more dire straits: his whole life laid bare by the Shroud and the Owl, his reputation ruined, and the two people he loves most, his best friend Foggy Nelson and his girlfriend Kirsten McDuffie, in the hands of his archfoe, the Kingpin. The story spotlights everything about Daredevil that makes him a great character: he uses his mind to set up Kingpin's downfall, and then he uses his fists to aid in it. And Waid gives Matt a big win as well as the losses here, keeping the balance just right. A lot of this series has been about Matt discovering things about himself and dealing with all the issues that years of being beaten down by his enemies and fate have given him, and at the end, before he has to go out and talk to the reporters and explain exactly what happened to him during his time in San Francisco, he breaks down. Not nervous breakdown collapse breaks down, but talks to Foggy and Kirsten about what being a man without fear means, and it's not all for the good. But he perseveres and pushes through, We get to see Matt in his traditional costume again, and Chris Samnee gets to draw not just the impressive fight scenes that have been his trademark on Daredevil,  but also some of the personal, quieter scenes that show off a different set of skills, with strong acting from the faces and body language that flow in a different way than combat. Chris Samnee was an artist whose work I enjoyed before this run, but after it he's become an artist I will follow wherever he goes. I'm looking forward to seeing what Charles Soule and Ron Garney are going to be doing on their new run on Daredevil, but they have very big shoes to fill; this run is as definitive to Daredevil as Waid's run on Flash as to Wally West. It was a swashbuckling story of crime, the law, superheroics, and a man trying to make the world and his life better. If you never tried it, or are curious about Daredevil after you saw his Netflix TV series, it's really something worth checking out. It's not like any Daredevil of the twenty years before it, and I think it will be the standard the next twenty years are measured against.


And Dan Grote reviews this week's battle between two of our favorite characters...

Deadpool vs. Thanos #1

Story: Tim Seeley

Art: Elmo Bondoc & Ruth Redmond

A long time ago (2002) on a space throne far, far away, Thanos, the Mad Titan, killer of stuff, cursed Wade Wilson with immortality, on account of Wade was getting too cozy with Thanos’ main squeeze, the living embodiment of Death.

The splash page on which this happened was the final page of writer Frank Tieri’s run on Deadpool, which cleared the way for Gail Simone and Udon Studios to take over the character. Thirteen years later, that coda is being explored in greater detail in a four-issue miniseries by writer Tim Seeley (Grayson) and artist Elmo Bondoc (the Loki issue of Ms. Marvel).

In Deadpool vs. Thanos, Death has gone missing. Not just taken a holiday, but completely disappeared. As a result, not only can no one be killed, but the dead are coming back to life (Yeah, I know, more zombies; let’s not dwell on it). Which totally messes with Deadpool’s assassination of Dr. Doom, who attempts to return the favor. While Wade heals from the more successful attempts on his life, he visits a place between life and death where he gets, let’s say, conjugal visits with Mistress Death (and a sweet, outside-the-mask mustache). This time, though, Death is trapped behind a mirror and begging for Wade’s help.

When he comes to, Deadpool seeks the expertise of Black Talon, a voodoo practitioner and rooster-headdress aficionado, who turns DP on to the idea of tracking down Thanos. After a fun montage featuring the Avengers, Cable, a poop joke and a Muppets reference, Deadpool shows up at Thanos’ space-doorstep, and tall, purple and rock-chinned commences straight up mega-murdering our anti-hero, having rescinded his decade-old curse.

Except it doesn’t take. Whoever took Death out of the picture, it’s not Thanos. And so the two realize they must team up to set the balance of life and death aright. Hope you like zany antics on a cosmic scale, because they’re gonna ensue.

For continuity geeks, a recap page lets readers know this story takes place before Deadpool’s Marvel NOW! relaunch of just a couple years ago. So don’t look for talk of Battleworld, incursions, the ghost of Benjamin Franklin or SHIELD agents who look like Pete Hornberger from 30 Rock. But if you’re a fan of DP’s retconned misadventures, such as the just-ended Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, you’ll no doubt enjoy this, too.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 4/22

Beyond Belief #1
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Phil Hester

Who cares what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Me for one, if that evil is spooooky and being investigated by Frank and Sadie Doyle in the pages of Image Comics second series based off the wonderful Thrilling Adventure Hour, Beyond Belief. Beyond Belief is my favorite segment of TAH, starring Paul F Tompkins and Paget Brewster as everyone's favorite married mediums, the Doyles, and as with the other TAH comic, Sparks Nevada, this takes place before the events of the podcast, so no prior knowledge is needed. You get to meet the Doyles, bon vivants and alcohol aficionados, who love nothing more than booze and each other. But their bliss is interrupted when Sadie's best friend, Donna, calls to ask for the Doyles' help, as the house she just bought is haunted. For those who know their TAH, Donna will one day be Donna Henderson, vampire and wife of werewolf Dave Henderson, and mother to the beast of the Apocalypse. But right now, she's just Donna Donner, new homeowner. The Doyles enter the haunted house to find a room full of creepy dolls, ancient spectres, and the ghosts of Mary Ellen Capp and her dead husband, Ted. With the story written by TAH creators Ben Acker and Ben Blacker it's not surprising that the dialogue is spot on; I can hear the actors reading the dialogue in my head. It's funny and with just a hint of creepy, especially the flying evil dolls. Phil Hester does a great job, not just capturing the horror, but also the essence of the Doyles. Frank and Sadie look dapper, dashing, and just a tad drunk, which is the ideal for the Doyles. And as a bonus, this issue also contains the digital first Beyond Belief #0 from the same creative team that tells the story of how Frank and Sadie met! If you've never tried Thrilling Adventure Hour, and like horror and comedy, this is the book to try, and if you're already a fan, well, you know what's in here, so get out and pick it up.

Empire: Uprising #1
Story: Mark Waid
Art: Barry Kitson

I love that no project is ever completely dead in comics is the creators have the passion and the rights (yeah, that last one is a little more problematic, but still...). It's how John Ostrander can return to Grimjack after a decade plus away, how I still hold out hope for Mage: The Hero Denied from Matt Wagner, and how we can get a new Empire story a decade after the last. I've been reading Empire through all of its incarnations, the two issues through Image and then the six from DC, so its new life at IDW is exciting. Empire is the story of a world conquered by Golgoth, a supervillain, and the workings of his inner court; it's like Game of Thrones with supervillains. This issue picks up a year after the end of the last issue, and the reader gets a primer on what has gone before from a schoolteacher talking to her class about world history; we hear her sanitized version of history along with panels showing exactly what Golgoth did to bring about his utopia, which is a nice touch. It's the anniversary of the death of Golgoth's daughter, Princess Delfi, and the world will have a moment of silence. And we quickly see that moment of silence is enforced with lethal force for anyone who breaks it. It's chilling to see that there's no real heart in Golgoth. This isn't the villain who has some kernel of good in him; he's a monster. He is also ridiculously powerful, which is evident as he slaughters a group of resistance fighters who attack during the moment of silence. Attacking in masks of Delfi is creepy enough, but as they cry out "Daddy!" in combat, well. brrrrrr. With the soldiers put down, we see various members of Golgoth's inner circle, and get a feeling for those who surround him. And we see Golgoth change his mind, something that does not go unnoticed by the various villains who serve him. Predators always sense weakness after all. It's a strong set-up for the return to this dystopia, and I'm looking forward to heading back in and seeing exactly who is trying to overthrow Golgoth and what their plans are.

Velvet #10
Story: Ed Brubaker
Art: Steve Epting

One of the numerous impressive things about Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's spy thriller, Velvet, is the way they balance action and plot.Over the course of this arc, Velvet Templeton, on the run from her own agency, ARC-7, has been attempting to find a traitor, and done some things along the way that would indicate to an outside observer she is the traitor, including freeing imprisoned traitor Damian Lake. Well, Damian escaped at the end of last issue, and now Velvet, on a train, is confronted by French authorities. This sets off an issue that is full of intense action, with a fight and flight on the train, through the woods, and to a farmhouse. Epting is at his best in this issue, drawing Velvet making her way through and on top of the train, diving off it, and fighting gendarmes and dogs hunting her through the woods. Brubaker gets to do some nice character work during the chase, especially as Velvet has to fight a dog and does so with reluctance. But as we get to the end of the chase, we see that Damian sold her out to the local ARC-7 office, and we meet the next of our potential traitors, local chief Jean Bellanger. But Damian is up to tricks, and a captured Velvet doesn't remain so as Damian's plan unfolds. The final pages, both Velvet's final scene and the epilogue, set all the gears that have been moving slowly into full speed. There is blood and bodies, and a power vacuum left at issue's end that will need to be filled, and whoever does it is going to want Velvet. It's a nail biter of an ending, one I absolutely didn't see coming and left my jaw on the floor. Velvet is the best spy comic I think I've ever read, adding a modern tilt to the classic James Bond formula. This issue marks the end of the second arc, so it's a perfect time to catch up before the third act begins.



And Dan Grote looks at this week's most talked about comic...

All-New X-Men #40

Story: Brian Michael Bendis

Art: Mahmud Asrar and Rain Beredo

X-Men post-crossover issues are often some of the franchise’s best moments, a chance for creative teams to mold memorable character beats, like Jean Grey proposing to Scott Summers or Jubilee teaching Professor X how to rollerblade. Frankly, I’d be weirded out if Brian Michael Bendis, who wrote many a breakfast scene during his run on the Avengers, couldn’t hack that.

Cards on the table: As someone who has been reading X-comics for more than 20 years, I have no problem whatsoever with Iceman being gay. Let’s be honest, the original five X-Men – five white kids, one of whom was “the girl” – were the Blandest Teens of All. Stan and Jack couldn’t even bother to write origin stories for them; they were just born with powers. Having one of them turn out to be gay at least adds a little spice to the mix. And it’s not like Chuck Austen didn’t toy with the idea during his run on Uncanny, much maligned as it is. And how many stories have there been in which somebody accused Bobby Drake of holding back? Perhaps that wasn’t just about his powers. I guess my only REAL question is: Whatever happened to Opal Tanaka?

I know some have raised issues about the WAY the reveal occurred, with Jean being telepathically invasive and the sort of heteronormative idea that gay people need to “out” themselves whereas straights can just be. I won’t pretend to be an expert in those things, nor should I, but as to the fact of a longtime character being retconned this way, I’m on board. I also really like Jean’s facial expressions and hand gestures in those panels.

All-New X-Men #40 wasn’t just about Bobby and Jean’s heart-to-heart, though. We also get a midair chat between young Angel and X-23. Warren is sporting new wings after the Black Vortex story, a move he says he made deliberately after learning how his adult self was corrupted by Apocalypse and then essentially erased by a Celestial life seed.

The framing scenes set up one last storyline (because Secret Wars) involving a band of mutants protecting Utopia, the X-Men’s old island base. I won’t spoil who they are, because I could only make out two of the six, one of which is an Obscure ’90s Relic.

Also, heh heh, Tyke-lops.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 2/18

Secret Identities #1
Story: Brian Joines & Jay Faerber 
Art: Ilias Kyriazis

We all have our secrets, and if you're a superhero, you probably have more than most. The debut issue of Brian Joines and Jay Faerber's Secret Identities is heavy on the secrets. Starring a team of heroes called The Front Line, the issue starts off looking like a by the numbers super hero team book. But pretty soon, we see that it's anything but. The private lives of the heroes are laid out before us, and we see the secrets they keep. Recluse has a secret prison beneath his mansion where he keeps prisoners for what seems to be a horrible purpose. Punchline is a failing comedian. Vesuvius seems to want to keep some aspect of his history a secret. Each of the seven members of Front Line have something they want to hide, and their new recruit, Crosswind, might have the biggest secret of all: he's a mole, sent in to learn the identities and secrets of his teammates to bring them down. And we learn that right out of the gate. This isn't a book about uncovering these secrets for the reader. Sure, there are details we don't know and twists that I'm sure will come, but this isn't about the secrets, but how we keep them and what they do to our lives. The Front Line, and the world they live in, jumps fully formed onto the page, with great designs for each of the characters by Ilias Kyriazis. It feels like a team that we know already, that lives in a world that has existed for some time. Jay Faerber is no stranger to the superhero soap opera, having written a book that falls more in line with that latter in Noble Causes, and while I'm less familiar with Brian Joines, I did enjoy the heck out of his Christmas action series, Krampus!, so the book is in good hands. This was a very strong start to a new series, one that established the stakes and the world, and gave us characters we could grow to like or despise. Let's hope for a nice long run, and answers to all the secrets and lies this first issue laid out for us.

She-Hulk #12
Story: Charles Soule
Art: Javier Pulido

*Sigh* Thus ends the current volume of She-Hulk. Charles Soule has written a book that focused more often on law then on super heroics, gave a full picture of who Jen Walters, She-Hulk, is, slowly built the mystery of The Blue File, and developed a great supporting cast for Jen Walters. This issue wraps up most of those plot threads. The issue starts out with exactly what happened to create the Blue File, the mystery case that Jen and various other super folk have been named as defendants in, and we see a seemingly new character, Nighteater. But with the revelation from the end of last issue about the culpability of Nightwatch in the case, things start to fall into place. This is one of the most action-centric issues of She-Hulk, but the intelligence and wit that have been the title's hallmark for this volume were not lost. While fighting Nighthawk, we get to learn exactly why he did what he did, why he remade himself as a hero. We get to see everything he's been up to, and we get a moment of, if not redemption, at least a moment where one of the villains we met earlier does the right thing. Hellcat and Angie Huang, Jen's employees, friends, and chief supporting cast, play a big role in the story as well. We never find out exactly what Angie's deal is, which is fine by me; I like the mystery of that, and what she is doesn't matter as much as what she is to Jen, her friend. The nature of heroism is a topic much discussed as She-Hulk fights Nightwatch, and in the end, Jen proves herself to be a true hero. But even with all these superheroics, the final few pages bring the series back around to what it's been about all along: Jen at her office, preparing for a new case. For the too short duration of its run, She-Hulk has been my favorite comic coming out from Marvel, a strong, character driven series that plays with the tropes of the Marvel Universe and builds on that history. I can only hope this isn't the last we'll see of Charles Soule writing this character.

Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars #1
Story: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
Art: J. Bone

It's time to shine your astro spurs and don your robot fists, as we begin today's thrilling review of Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars #1! I've written before about how much I love The Thrilling Adventure Hour, live theatre and internet home to Sparks Nevada, Croach the Tracker, and a host of other characters. And their transition to monthly comics has gone off without a hitch. Written by TAH creators Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, this story takes place before the earliest Sparks Nevada story on the podcast, and so no prior knowledge of the characters is required. After a flashback to Sparks at the Academy (because all sci-fi worlds have an academy) with his parents, the story starts in earnest with Sparks escorting a stage coach across the crimson plains of Mars. The coach contains the Johnsons (one of whom we know from the shows and the issue title as the Widow Johnson, so it doesn't bode well for Mr. Johnson) and panicky local yokel Felton, who proves to be a chatty passenger to an increasingly irritated Sparks. As they travel across the plains, they run into Martians, who seek nothing more than to be out from under Onus (picture Wookiee life debt, only less for all your life and with way more complaining by those indebted) to Sparks, rogue robots, and aliens. The issue has the trademark Sparks mix of action and humor, with a healthy dose of the latter. The dynamic between Sparks and Croach, the martian who must perform the duty of helping Sparks and who will become his friend and companion, is already coming into focus this early, and their rapport and repartee (or lack thereof) is one of main sources of comedy. Artist J. Bone gets to stretch his artistic legs in his designs for the different robot rogues, as well as the group of aliens that appear at story's end. Accompanying the first issue is also a print version of the digital first Sparks Nevada #0, the story of how Sparks and Croach first met. so if you prefer your comics in print form, here's your chance to get this for the first time. Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars is a clever mixture of western and sci-fi tropes. one that should delight fans of either genre.

The Valiant #3
Story: Jeff Lemire & Matt Kindt
Art: Paolo Rivera

The Valiant #3 is really two great comics in one issue. Last issue left the series main characters divided, with Kay McHenry and Bloodshot on the run from the Immortal Enemy, while Eternal Warriro, Ninjak, and the rest of the Valiant heroes are ready to stand and fight. This issue, the two stories each develop on their own. The battle between the heroes and the Immortal Enemy is stunning. Paolo Rivera goes completely to town on drawing not just the combat, but the horrors when the Immortal Enemy gets into the heads of the heroes and shows them their worst fears. It's like a Scarecrow fear toxin attack on steroids. Rivera gets to draw all the Valiant heroes, from Archer & Armstrong to Quantum & Woody to Punk Mambo. It's the kind of thing that other companies would spread out over the course of three issues, but this series does it all in half an issue, and it doesn't feel rushed, and the art makes it so clear and crisp that you follow each stroke of sword and laser blast. The other end of the spectrum is Bloodshot and Kay. Bloodshot has been tasked with protecting Kay, so he brings her into a shopping mall. Lemire, who wrote this section of the issue, takes you through the pages in this issue's backmatter, and it's so cool to see these two people, thrust into lives of extreme weirdness, walking past home wares and all the things that they will never have. It's a very thoughtful scene, wonderfully written, as Kay keeps asking Bloodshot personal questions, and he keeps deflecting by doing his super soldier, preparing for the enemy thing. The dynamic between the two of them is wonderful, and I hope to see more of it in the future. The issue ends with Kay trying to help Bloodshot, but leaving them in a vulnerable position as the Immortal Enemy approaches. It's a great cliffhanger for a series that does everything you want from a crossover and does it without all the bloating from other companies. It's tightly paced and plotted, and never forgets character for action. There's still time to catch up before next month's finale, so if you haven't tried out The Valiant, what are you waiting for?



And Dan Grote brings us back to Jersey City, where Ms. Marvel goes to a dance and meets a certain god of Mischief...

Ms. Marvel #12

Story: G. Willow Wilson

Art: Elmo Bondoc and Ian Herring

After 11 issues of establishing Kamala Khan and her world, a standalone issue is a breath of fresh air.

It’s also time for another Marvel team-up, this time with the de-aged Loki currently starring in his own series by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett. Loki is sent to Coles Academic High by his mother, Freyja, for whatever expositionary reason is necessary to get Loki to willingly visit Jersey City. Much of the humor of this issue lies in the residents of J.C. mocking the Agent of Asgard as a “Hipster Viking from Brooklyn.” Loki certainly doesn’t give anyone reason to doubt that label, literally prancing about and writing love letters with the purplest of prose. One of the benefits of Loki looking the way he does now, though, is that he’s not instantly recognizable as the god of mischief, so it takes a while for Kamala to realize she’s locking horn-helmets with a classic villain. It also lets Loki do cliche Loki things like create duplicate illusions of himself and laugh while Kamala punches the wrong ones.

There’s a few other great beats in this issue. First, Bruno, the only human who knows Kamala’s secret, lectures his degenerate friend about why being “friend-zoned” isn’t a negative thing, because “friendship is something real and good and anybody who doesn’t understand that needs a dictionary.” Granted, he says this because Kamala has no interest in him romantically, but it takes a mature attitude to understand there are other types of love besides romantic.

Later, Loki spikes the punch at a Coles Valentine’s dance with truth elixir. Suddenly, a room full of teenagers stops being polite and starts getting real.

Finally, after Loki’s finished having his sport, he agrees to cast a spell of protection on the school, which is still half a mess from an attack by one of the Inventor’s robots.

For another great standalone featuring Ms. Marvel, check out last month’s SHIELD #2, in which Agent Simmons goes undercover at Coles High and teams up with Kamala against some loose supervillain tech.