Recommended Reading for 4/15: The Sixth Gun

The Weird Western genre has had a resurgence in recent years, and while some of that can be attributed to DC's push on Jonah Hex,as much if not more can go to Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, a creator owned western out of Oni Press that proved that original Western content had an audience still hungry for it, this writer included (cool fact: issue one of the series was Oni Press's 2010 Free Comic Book Day issue, for which I am grateful, since that's how I discovered the series. Another case where FCBD has done something awesome for me). While Bunn and heart had both done work in comics before (as a matter of fact, they had done a series called The Damned for Oni), this is the series that shone a spotlight on them, and as the series begins its final arc next Wednesday, I wanted to spend some time discussing why you should check it out.

Set in the Reconstruction era American South, The Sixth Gun is the story of a band of unlikely heroes attempting to stop the destruction and recreation of the world using six magical guns. The two main characters of the series are Drake Sinclair, a roguish gunman with secrets in his past, and Becky Montcrief, the innocent young woman who comes into possession of the eponymous Sixth Gun at the beginning of the series, and must keep it out of the hands of undead confederate generals, witches, serpent creatures, and all manner of monsters, or the world is doomed. Throughout the series, a wide variety of deeply written and interesting allies and enemies have lived and died, but Drake and Becky stand at the center of the story.

Before I talk about more plot and character stuff, I just want to address the title and its eponymous weapon. The Sixth Gun has been a tremendous achievement of world building, which I know is one of my favorite phrases, but it's something that draws me to a story. I love when the creators of a comic, novel, movie, or any work of fiction take time to plot out not only a long game, but to give thought to the world around their character, and the objects and locations in it. The Six, the magical guns that are the driving force of the series, are really well thought out. I want to give the description of each gun drawn from The Sixth Gun RPG as they use phrasing from the comic and show that Bunn put thought into each gun as an object on it own, instead of treating them simply as MacGuffins:

The First Gun strikes with the ungodly force of a cannon shell.

The Second Gun spreads the very flames of Perdition.

The Third Gun Spreads the flesh-rotting plagues of old.

The Fourth Gun calls up the spirits of the men and women it has slain.

The Fifth Gun grants eternal youth and the ability to heal from even fatal wounds.

The Sixth Gun speaks to its wielder, revealing the past and the future.

The opening arc of The Sixth Gun introduces readers not just to Drake and Becky, and details how Becky comes to posses the Sixth Gun, but the the current holders of the other guns of The Six. They are a group of former Confederate soldiers who served under the merciless General Oleander Hume, previous holder of the Sixth Gun, as well as Hume's wife. There goal is to retrieve the Sixth Gun so they can return it to the now undead Hume and begin bringing about the apocalypse. Becky and Drake travel, along with Drake's partner Billjohn O'Henry to the Maw, a prison built by Hume, and there, along with one of the prisoners, Gord Cantrell, face down Hume's army of the Undead and the bearers of the Six.

That first arc captures so much about what makes The Sixth Gun a great comic. Not only do we meet a group of fascinating characters, but it's a tense race to keep the Sixth Gun from the hands of General Hume's men, and the final battle at the Maw is a gorgeous set piece, brilliantly put together by Brian Hurtt and featuring monsters and men doing battle.

The series follows Becky and Drake through many different locales, some real or realistic, some decidedly fanciful. The second arc takes place on the streets of New Orleans, but streets populated by Caribbean crossroads gods and demons. There are towns populated by snake people that serve Griselda, the Grey Witch, the mother of General Hume and a powerful sorceress. One whole arc takes place nearly entirely in a supernatural snow storm, with supernatural wolves hunting out heroes. And when Becky goes on a Native American ghost walk, we see the origin of the Six and how they have taken different forms throughout many different ages,

The balance between the western and the weird is another of the charms of The Sixth Gun. While the villains include witches and undead generals, there are also Pinkerton detectives employed to find out heroes. The Native American tribes are always treated respectfully and realistically in their bearing, but there are thunderbirds of myth and the shrunken head of a shaman that possesses his bearer. And while not dwelt on, the social ramifications of the civil war are present, while the possible ramifications of the end of the world always dog the protagonists.

And now it's time to talk about those protagonists. Becky Montcrief is the center of the series, not just as the bearer of the title Sixth Gun, but as she is the character whose emotional journey rests at its core. When we first meet Becky, she is an innocent who has been living with her stepfather away from civilization. But when she comes into possession of the Sixth Gun (which her stepfather had, having been part of the party that liberated it from General Hume), she has to grow up fast. We watch Becky become part of the world outside her limited sphere, and not slowly. She not only has to deal with monsters hunting her, but the weight of responsibility. We watch Becky become a woman to be reckoned with as we move towards the series ending.

Drake Sinclair's path is one of redemption. Drake was part of General Hume's crew during the Civil War, but when he realized just how evil Hume was, Drake broke ties with the General, and tried to live his post-War years as a scoundrel and ne'er-do-well, looking out only for himself, his partner, and his pockets. But when he is drawn into the web of he apocalypse and the Six, Drake does his best to redeem himself for his selfishness and dark actions, and pays repeatedly with his own blood and hat of his friends. I'm a sucker for a redemption story, and Drake is a man who wants to do better, even if he so often falls short.

But if I had to pick a favorite character in the series, it would be Gord Cantrell. Gord is a former slave and a former prisoner of General Hume's Maw prison. He is also one of he few truly and fully good characters in the series. He had dabbled with the dark arts as a younger man, but now has passed through that crucible to be a trusted friend and ally to Becky, using his knowledge of magic to help find a way to destroy the Six. With a past filled with tragedy, Gord is a rich character who feels his own life is worth the sacrifice to save the world.

The final recurring heroic character, and I use the heroic in this case loosely, is Kirby Hale. Hale is a young gunslinger, handsome and charming, and cocky to the extreme. And you're never sure exactly whose side he's on. Kirby's first appearance sparks a romantic triangle of sorts between him, Becky, and Drake. His feelings complicate his life, as he really develops feelings for Becky, which drives him to be a better man and make choices the previously smarmy gunslinger never would have.

The villains of The Sixth Gun are a little more hand-wringingly evil at the time of the series, as most of them have surrendered much of their humanity to the power of The Six or to other forces of evil, but the spin-off mini-series have given us more of an understanding of their times before evil ruled them. The four men who wield four of the guns at the beginning of the series each get a spotlight issue to see what they were after the war and before they returned to hunt the Sixth Gun. Jesup Sutter, a Pinkerton who served Missy Hume and eventually Griselda the Grey Witch, shares a mini-series and we see that he has tragedy in his background. But General Hume and his wife, Missy, and Griselda the Grey Witch, who is revealed as the series big bad? They are more given over the the darkness, and are much less sympathetic figures, which is perfectly fine, if you ask me. When you're trying to bring about the apocalypse, there's a good chance evil is as evil does.

And over the course of the forty-seven issues so far, there are many more fascinating characters. Members of two rival orders, the Knights of Solomon, who seek the secrets and powers of the magical artifacts throughout the world, and the Sons of the Sword of Abraham, a holy order of priests dedicated to destroying The Six, move in and out of the series, the former led by Jesup Sutter, the latter by the noble but driven Brother Roberto. Towards the middle of the series, Becky and Drake gain two Native American allies, the warrior Nahuel and the medicine woman Nidawi, as well as the totem they wield, the shrunken head of the medicine man Screaming Crow, who can possess the bodies of the living and wield his magic through them. And the most odd character of all, Asher Cobb. Cobb was born with gigantism, and after his death was mummified, and whose corpse is now an oracle. Cobb is another character who I found absolutely fascinating, and whose tragic life makes his choices, both good and bad, understandable. And let me boil that down: he's an eight-foot tall mummy who sees the future; if that's not a comic book concept, I never heard one.

 Brian Hurtt's art works perfectly in tandem with Cullen Bunn's scripts. His work captures both the old west and the fantastic elements of the stories, with large and terrifying creatures, like giant white wolves, as well as gunslingers and saloons. The book wouldn't ring with the authenticity without his thoroughly researched work (and if he didn't research the hell out of the period, he's got me fooled).  On top of his excellent character designs, making all the main and minor characters of The Sixth Gun memorable, the monsters and settings make this is visually outstanding series. And on top of Hurtt's excellent work, one of my favorite artists in comics, Tyler Crook of BPRD and Harrow County fame, did three one-off issues focusing on the backgrounds of Kirby Hale, Asher Cobb, and Griselda, as well as my favorite of the the spin off mini-series, the one focusing on Drake's loyal partner Billjohn O'Henry.

The Sixth Gun is a western tale with magic, monsters, romance, and style. If you're a fan of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, another western by way of magic, or traditional westerns of any stripe, it's a great book to try out, and with the concluding arc kicking off this Wednesday, you have three months to get caught up before the big finale.

The Sixth Gun is collected in eight individual trade paperbacks, starting with Cold Dead Fingers, all of which are readily available at comic shops and on-line, that collect the entire series to date, as well as three trades that collect the spin-off mini-series. There are also three over-sized hardcovers to date, but those have not quite reached the most recent arcs, so if you want to get caught up, the trades are the way to go, or if you like big hardcovers, a final volume or two should finish off the series,

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 2/10

Batman #49
Story: Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV
Art: Yanick Paquette & Nathan Fairbairn

Damn, I promised myself I wouldn't cry...  So, the one true Batman is back, and my heart is as broken as I expected it to be by the choices Bruce Wayne had to make, and even moreso by the choices the people who love him had to make. Snyder uses the mind download device from his short in Detective Comics #27 as the way that Bruce can reclaim his past, which makes a fun Elseworlds-type story into a very cool bit of foreshadowing. And as the attempts to download the old memories into the new Bruce's mind fail, we see visions of possible Batmen in Bruce's mind die with each failed download. These different realities all show different, unusual Batmen, some with hints of classic other versions of Batman, some completely new, and it's a credit to both Snyder and Tynion for the ideas, and artist Yanick Paquette for their execution; the centerpiece visions of Batman as Gotham's white knight is gorgeous, but a post-apocalyptic desert Batman with a similarly garbed Robin is the one that grabbed my attention the most. But as cool as the science fiction of the issue is, and all the alternate Batmen are, the thing that grounds the issue and that makes it one of the best Batman stories of Snyder's run on Batman is the interaction between Bruce and Alfred. This Bruce, the one without the trauma, is possibly an even grater hero than his old self, because he willingly makes the sacrifice of everything that makes him happy to save Gotham. And this isn't a "For the Man Who Has Everything" situation, where he's rejecting a fantasy. No, he's rejecting a better life and a better self. And Alfred, loyal Alfred, is pleading with him to not do it. Everything Alfred says, whether before he is forced to use the machine that might return Bruce's memories or might just kill him or after, are the words of someone who loves this man he is talking to like his son. And between those words and the absolute, heart-rending pain that Paquette draws on his face, you can't help but feeling your heart break too. And when Julie Madison enters the Batcave and... I don't want to spoil exactly what she has to do, but her backstory with Bruce has been really well seeded throughout the series, and her choice is just as heroic as Bruce's. The original Golden Age Julie Madison was never that memorable compared to other Batman love interests, and while Matt Wagner did some great stuff with her in Batman & The Mad Monk and Batman and the Monster Men, it's these stories that have earned her a place in my heart alongside Selina Kyle and Talia as one of the great loves of Batman and a great character in her own right. The final panel of the issue shows a Bruce Wayne, shorn of the beard he has worn in his recent life by the heat and lightning of the machine that has given birth to Batman once more, wearing a look that is pure Batman, and with two lines, "Save it for the car. Let's go to work," you know he's back, and that the evil Mr. Bloom's day in Gotham are numbered.

Harrow County #9
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Carla Speed McNeil & Jenn Manley Lee

After taking a couple months off, Dark Horse Comics' southern Gothic, Harrow County, returns with an issue focusing on one the series' principal supporting characters: the Skinless Boy, one of the "haints" that serves Emmy, the series protagonist. The issue takes place over one night, and starts out with a mysterious new character jumping from a train and entering Harrow County, catching a sparrow from the air and fashioning it into a flute, and with the music of the flute he summons the Skinless Boy. This new character is clearly a witch (wizard? sorcerer? monster?) in his own right, as he spends the night leading the Skinless Boy through a journey of discovery. What makes this story chilling is the way this new character gets into the head of the Skinless Boy, the way he taunts him about what his life was like before he became what he is, and how he leads him along this path, through the woods, to the brier patch where Emmy found his empty skin, which he carries with him, and to the house where there are answers to the question of who he was and what his name was. And when he enters the house, what he finds shows readers a new secret of Harrow County, a secret about how Hester, the witch who is both Emmy's mother and possibly Emmy herself, created all the creatures that she populated her little corner of the world with. And even as the man offers the Skinless Boy a chance to maybe reclaim something, a name and a life, we see that what appears to be a monster may be much less one. The Skinless Boy remains loyal to Emmy, but this new man, who addresses himself as, "The Boogeyman's Boogeyman," is out there, and it's clear he knows more about Emmy and Harrow County than maybe she does. This issue is a great jumping on point for this series, because even if it doesn't feature the series lead in a leading role, it gives the reader a sense of the atmosphere that Harrow County provides, and that atmosphere, of dark dread, is part of what makes this comic outstanding. Guest artist Carla Speed McNeil does a great job blending her own style with that or series regular artist Tyler Crook to make the issue feel like a seamless part of the same world that readers are familiar with. If the weather outside isn't chilly enough for you, pick up this new issue of Harrow County to get a good chill up your spine.

King's Road #1
Story: Peter Hogan
Art: Phil Winslade and Staz Johnson & Douglas Sirios

It's a testament to how much I enjoyed the King's Road serial in Dark Horse Presents that ran from April through June of 2013 that I remembered it clearly when this mini-series was solicited and was excited to see where the story went. And for those of you not reading Dark Horse Presents, this first issue reprints the three part prequel, so you're getting twice as much story for the price of one comic! King's Road is the story of Don, a man who left his home world, a fantasy type one, and through magic traveled to Earth, where he set up a normal life. But now, his brother the king is dead, and his sister the general has been transformed into a dog, and so he's now king. So Don and his wife Sophie, along with his kids, Ashley and Tyler, have to go back to his homeworld and stop the evil sorceress Malicia. Only the kids have no idea that their dad is from a fantasy world; they think he's just a boring regular dad. This first issue spends time with each member of the family, as well as Aunt Amerine, who is now a talking dog, so it feels like an ensemble book. There are monsters, sorcerers, a creepy amusement park, guardians disguised as friends, and a traitor in their midst. The charm of this issue is that it takes so many fantasy tropes and plays them straight. There's no deconstruction of the genre, just high fantasy mixed with a touch if family drama. There's something abut a well trod tale told well, and Peter Hogan knows his fantasy well enough to keep it interesting, and knows how to build likable characters. The opening chapter is by the inestimable Phil Winslade, one of those artists who has the chops to do great superhero comics, great horror, and great fantasy, all with a distinct style all his own. Staz Johnson comes in with the new material, and he's able to capture the same sense of motion and excitement as Winslade, but not lose his own work in Winslade's style; Johnson is one of those artists who did a lot of Batman adjacent work in the 90s-00s, and I have fond remembrances of his work their, and he's only gotten better. King's Road is a great comic if you're looking for a light, exciting action and fantasy comic that has touches of the best of heroic fantasy.

The Manhattan Projects: The Sun Beyond the Stars #4
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Nick Pitarra & Michael Garland

After a considerable delay, the new Manhattan Projects arc/mini-series, The Sun Beyond the Stars wraps up, and it's quite an ending. When last we left Yuri Gagarin and Laika, they were on a space ship with a group of criminals, surrounded by a fleet of Sionnu Science Union ships ready to board them, and with Justice Ryleth, the insane judge whose been chasing them, waiting to board the ship as well. And things don't get better, Like, not one bit. Jonathan Hickman's creator owned books from Image don't really have much of a sentimental streak, and this is an issue that ends like a Shakespearean tragedy: there are bodies everywhere. Hickman gets to run rampant with the action, with a big fight between most of the crew and Ryleth, while Primor, the escaped Sionnu slave that has led an entire race of vile super scientists down upon their heads, prepares for his endgame. And boy it's quite an endgame. Nick Pitarra gets to really go to town this issue, drawing fighting aliens and robots, as well as giant tentacle monsters. Chekhov's (ray)gun goes off, with the spores that were the cause of much of this hunt going off at the end of the series, and leaving us with a pretty barren playing field. And with just our Manhattan Projects alums left, Laika and Yuri floating in space, you think you might get a final sweet reunion between a spaceman and his dog right? Hah, you don't know The Manhattan Projects do you? While many issues of The Manhattan Projects are full of mad science and lots of talking, it's nice to get this climax that's full of action and humor. Well humor as long as your sense of humor is warped enough, and I recommend a particularly warped one if you're going in to this comic. Now with this arc over, and Hickman's contract with Marvel complete (mostly anyway, C'mon, let's get the end of SHIELD please!), I'm hoping we'll get a new arc set back on Earth of Manhattan Projects soon, but as send offs go, this is a very good one for our astronauts.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 12/10

Batman #47
Story: Scott Snyder
Art: Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, & FCO Plascencia

Jim Gordon's fight with Mr. Bloom continues as the countdown to Bruce Wayne's memory returning kicks into high gear. The end of last issues looked pretty grim for Gordon, as Mr. Bloom has taken over Gordon's Bat-armor and set it against him. Jim once again proves that he's more clever than people have given him credit for, by not only having the blocker that he was prepared to use on Bloom, but another handy device or two. And when thrown through the roof by his now villain-possessed armor, Jim uses his Bat tools and his smarts to avoid a particularly gory death in an action beat that Capullo handles beautifully; it's only two pages, but it shows exactly how talented Capullo is when it comes to motion and to faces, as the smile on Gordon's is priceless. Meanwhile, the two other character plots for the previous couple issues intersect, as Duke Thomas, still trying to make his way out of the Penguin's Iceberg Casino with Penguin and his fellow freak mobsters on his tail. But when it looks like two of Penguin's men have the drop on him, it turns out that it's Bruce Wayne who has the drop on them, having figured out where Duke was going. And it's Duke who is finally the person who pushes Bruce, who tells him who he is without flat out saying it. He points out that Bruce is the best in the world at deduction, and gives him the clues he needs. And standing in front of an oncoming subway train, as Bruce sees the lights bearing down on them, just before he pushes Duke out of the way, he sees the shape of what he was. If I haven't said it before, between here, We Are Robin, and his appearances in this week's "Robin War" issues, sign me up for the official Duke Thomas should be Batman's new partner club. He is my favorite new character launching out of the Bat books in years (Sorry, Harper Row. I like you too, but Duke is awesome). Meanwhile, things aren't quite as easy for Jim as it would seem, as we learn the one thing that is more creepy than one flower masked, gangly monster villain.And I don't want to say anything about the last page, even though it's been spoiled by various articles on-line, but it FINALLY begins answering a question I've been asking since we saw Bruce up and about again in issue forty-two, one that I'm surprised no one on the context of the comic has been asking, Whether we get payoff on it next issue, or it's going to be a long term plot, well, we'll have to see, but I'm excited to see where it goes.

Harrow County #8
Story: Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
Art: Tyler Crook and Simon Roy

The second arc of Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook's exemplary horror coming, Harrow County, comes to an end with a war of ghosts and witches. The war between the series protagonist, Emmy, and her twin sister, the wicked witch Kammi, allows both of the series creators to show their strengths. Emmy's fight through the woods from the army of "haints" that have allied with her sister is full of some of Crook's painstakingly designed monsters, with things like harpies, swamp monsters, mud monsters, along with the ghost bears and flaming skeletons that remain loyal to Emmy. The woods themselves have an air of creepiness that Crook brings out in the long shadowed dark corners and the scrubby grass, and when you add in the monsters, it is a place you would not want to go in day or night. It's also impressive to see how, with an identical protagonist and antagonist, it's never hard to tell the two apart, even when Kammi is glamoured to have the same hair and clothes as Emmy. Expressions and body language are perfectly suited to each. The final confrontation between the sisters is Bunn's shining moment, letting everything the two have been feeling for the past arc come to the surface. And the final twist, as Emmy is able to dispose of Kammi, is a terrifying moment, one that makes perfect sense in the world, and ends in a heartbreaking splash of Emmy, once again alone. And while the end of the story seems a country idyll, as the narration points out, the things are still out there, waiting, which is the cornerstone of good horror. Throw in the one page back-up written by Crook and drawn by Simon Roy, a horror tied to something any homeowner knows and fears for mundane reasons, and you have a top notch issue. Two arcs in and Harrow County is one of the best horror comics on the racks right now.

Star Wars Annual #1
Story: Kieron Gillen
Art: Angel Unzueto & Paul Mounts

After Friday's post about Star Wars comics I'd like to see featured two espionage titles, I found it oddly fitting that this week's Star Wars Annual would be a story of the Rebel spy embedded in the Empire. Eneb Ray is a new character, working as a tax collector under the name Tharius Demo. I like the idea that the Rebellion is exploiting the colossal bureaucracy of the Empire to get its people in places where they can effect change, and that through taxes and tariffs they are able to impact change. But Ray isn't just a number cruncher, and he receives a mission more fitting a comic book, as he must go and liberate a group of senators who have spoken against the Empire from prison before they are executed. Ray's entrance to the prison, drawn beautifully by Angel Unzueto, is right out of Mission: Impossible or the James Bond series, with Ray diving off a pseeding transport, using magnetic gloves to stick to the side of the prison, and enter through the vents with the aid of a magnetic grapple gun. But the mission changes when Ray finds out that the Emperor himself is coming to have one last interview with the senators, and Ray decides it's time to make a play at assassinating Palpatine. Calling in all of the Rebellion's assets on Coruscant, Ray mounts what seems to be a very successful assassination of the Emperor. Too successful if you know anything about Star Wars, and I can't resist quoting everyone's favorite Mon Cal by simply pointing out, "It's a trap!" In the end, as good a spy as Ray is, he's nothing compared to the master of manipulation that is Palpatine, and things don't turn out too well for the Rebels. The issue is narrated by Ray, who thinks of himself as a man who makes the hard choices and not a hero. The journey that he makes throughout the issue is well written and is a great character arc. This is a new character who I hope gets to come back in future issues of this title, or in Darth Vader, which is written by this annual's writer, Kieron Gillen,


And Dan Grote is coming at you with two reviews this week...

Deadpool #3

Story: Gerry Duggan

Art: Mike Hawthorne, Terry Pallot, & Guru eFX.

It’s payday at Deadpool’s Mercs for Money ... or it would be if their checks hadn’t all bounced.

That means Solo can't pay alimony to his ex-wife, Terror can’t afford organ transplants from Morbius the Living Vampire, Slapstick can’t afford the prostitutes he pays to pretend to be his family, and Foolkiller can’t afford more guns.

Meanwhile, original-recipe Deadpool is being interrogated by the police about the killing of the zoning commissioner in issue 1. Turns out the cops don’t think he did it, even though whoever did left loud evidence to the contrary. As part of a crazy-like-a-fox plan, Wade has the cops formally arrest him. While being transported to jail, his bus is attacked by the fake DP who’s been causing all the trouble. The two fight, and we get a brief glimpse under the mask. Whoever’s under there has jaundiced, scaly skin and black eyes.

(Hey, you guys remember Slayback? Just a thought.)

Fake DP gets away, but he leaves Wade a present – a well-beaten, possibly actually still alive Scott Adsit, last seen stabbed in issue 2.

Now for the two Deadpools we haven’t talked about yet. Turns out Stingray has been working as a mole for Steve Rogers, Wade’s Uncanny Avengers boss. Stingray has some concerns about fellow faux-Pool Madcap, who apparently wasn’t so much invited to join DP’s M4M as he just showed up one day. And so the two go to confront him.

Madcap’s hotel room, in a word, is great. A bubble machine blows nonstop, and there are lava lamps and welcome mats everywhere. Told to straighten up and fly right, Madcap boops Stingray on the nose and tried to do the same to Old Man Rogers, who grabs his finger and threatens to do World War II things to him. In response, Madcap cuts off his own finger and jumps out a window. “He needs to go,” Rogers declares. I disagree.

Last week I declared Doctor Strange my favorite of the All-New, All-Different Marvel titles so far. That ranking holds, but Deadpool is a close second. The book has taken such a sharp turn from the previous volume, with a nearly entirely new supporting cast, yet still feels solid. The creative team clearly has a plan for each of the Mercs for Money and refuses to allow them to become one bland mass of red-and-black-clad lunatic killers. A-game stuff.

Gwenpool Holiday Special

Stories: Charles Soule (She-Hulk), Margaret Stohl (Ms. Marvel), Gerry Duggan (Hawkeye & Deadpool), and Christopher Hastings (Gwenpool)

Art: Langdon Foss (She-Hulk), Juan Gedeon (Ms. Marvel), Danilo S. Beyruth (Hawkeye & Deadpool), and Gurihiru (Gwenpool)

What if I told you there was a place where all your favorite canceled but beloved Marvel series characters gathered in one place to warm your heart and make you smile?

What if I told you Deadpool was there, too? And his alternate-Earth Gwen Stacy counterpart that started life as a variant-cover gimmick?

Welcome to Marvel’s 2015 holiday special, billed as a Gwenpool one-shot but actually mostly a She-Hulk story reuniting the Atomic Age attorney with writer Charles Soule.

A holiday happening at the Brooklyn building that houses Shulkie’s law office (and Howard the Duck’s PI agency) acts as the framing device for the book, as Jen and the gang party the night away to ward off insectlike Realtors who use magic to convince people to give up on their dreams and turn over their property so it can be flipped at higher values. In other words, Charles Soule wrote a Charles Soule She-Hulk story, you guys!

A series of interludes shows other heroes making their way to Jen’s party, stopping only to bust a skull or two.

In the first one, Ms. Marvel battles her conflicted feelings about the holidays as a practicing Muslim, a Secret Santa exchange with her platonic-but-not-really bestie Bruno and a store-robbing Santa. Though not handled by her normal creative team, Kamala is as delightful as ever, even when she’s being a Christmas crank. (Even her brother, the most devout Muslim in her family, can find the joy in Rudolph.) After toppling bad Santa, K exchanges gifts with her mentor, Captain Marvel, and the two head off to She-Hulk’s place.

Next up, fellow Avengers Deadpool and Hawkeye (Clint Barton) team up to catch a pickpocket who stole money from Simone, one of the residents of Clint’s apartment building from the Fraction/Aja series. Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) catches the crook, who says he was just trying to get money to buy presents for his son. Wade opens his heart and his wallet, and the three deliver the boy gifts before whisking his dad off to the police. Then it’s off to Jen’s party … and just as quickly away from it, as she has a strict no-Deadpool policy.

Finally, we come to Gwenpool, who combines all the cutesiness of a superconfident fictional teenage girl with the murderiness and colored speech balloons of Deadpool. Gwen is hired to take out a sword-swinging snake-man who looks like the genie from Aladdin, requiring her to watch hours of sword-training videos on YouTube till she gives up and decides to just blow him up with a bomb. Because she’s been a supporting player in Howard the Duck, she too ends up at She-Hulk’s party, where she bonds with Ms. Marvel over karaoke, but not so much over murdering dudes.

Quick shoutout to Langdon Foss, who drew the She-Hulk bits. His splash pages are like a superhero Where’s Waldo, with many more Marvel characters drawn into them than I’ve mentioned.

And the Autumn Moon is Bright: Werewolves in Comics

Recently, I read a column where someone asked the writer a question about werewolves in superhero comics, and the writer identified himself as a vampire fan more than a werewolf fan. Well, I like vampires fine, and I know zombies are the monster du jour in the public zeitgeist right now, but for me? It's all about the werewolf. I feel like werewolves are about the internal struggle of humanity between its better nature and its baser instincts, and since the person is not always he monster, it allows an incite into the person who is the monster, whether they fight the monster or embrace it. Also, you get to turn into a giant wolf or wolfman. How cool is that?

So, I spent the past couple weeks digging through my collection to pull out some of the best werewolf comics I could find. I'm avoiding a couple of the more obvious ones that are either not full on werewolf stories but more superhero stories (the infamous "Capwolf" story where Captain America becomes a werewolf, for instance, or the excellent Batman #255, "Moon of the Wolf," which was also adapted into a great episode of Batman: The Animated Series), although I am going to hit a couple of those, but mostly I'm sticking to horror and comedy versions, because there are a couple of really good werewolf comedy stories. So, if you want to check out some interesting werewolf stories, read on.

The Astounding Wolf-Man

So, not everything Robert Kirkman writes is Walking Dead or Invincible, these massively long running series, but that's not to say they aren't great comics. The Astounding Wolf-Man, which ran for twenty-five issues, was co-created by Kirkman and Jason Howard, who went on to work with Kirkman on Super Dinosaur and is now the artist on Warren Ellis's Trees,  is the story of Gary Hampton, a wealthy family fan who, while on vacation, is attacked by a werewolf and decides that he wants to use his powers to become a superhero. I know I said above I was avoiding superhero stories, and while Kirkman's story has a lot of superhero in it,there is a hart of horror to it, both because Gary's archfoe is a vampire, Zechariah (this won't be the last werewolf vs. vampire story on this list), but because much of Gary's struggle is with the beast within. Because while he can transform pretty much at will any night, when the full moon rises he becomes an out of control monster, and much of the series has to do with the ramifications of what Gary has done in werewolf form. There's a whole series of events involving another elder werewolf, plus a lot of action and superheroics. Kikman wrapped up most of the plot threads of the series, which is collected and available in four trade paperbacks, and Wolf-Man does occasionally pop up as a supporting or background hero in various books in the Invincible family.

Curse

A four issue mini-series from Boom Studios from a couple years back, Curse asks the question of how far someone will go to save someone they love. Michael Moreci and Tim Daniel write the story of Laney Griffin, a former football star who has fallen on hard times, not just financially but also in that his son is dying of an illness he can barely afford to pay the hospital to treat. But when a series of savage killings occur, and a price is placed on the head of man or animal that is committing them, Laney goes on the hunt. And he finds the killer is a bit of both, a werewolf who has lived for centuries. And so Laney captures the werewolf and spends time considering if the curse could be the salvation of his son, while others hunt the monster and Laney is caught up in other peoples plans. It's a solid story, but the art is what really gabs you. Colin Lorimer draws the lion's share, but Riley Rossmo, whose work on many other great horror comics makes him a  modern master, creates a rangy, long limbed terror in his werewolf design that is unique to the series and makes it a standout.

Riven

Bo Hampton and Robert Tinnel craft a story of one young woman's horror in Riven. Opening in Romania, readers see an American couple desperate to find a baby to adopt, and they are given Katya, a seemingly normal young girl, but the orphanage is... off. Flash forward ten years to a teen Katya, now Katy, who after an accident enters a coma where once a month, tied to the full moon, she has strange spike in brain activity. Waking from the coma after five years, Katy recovers from years of inactivity faster than anyone expected, yet still, once a month, has fits where she now can tell people she sees horrors. Katy watches a werewolf killing, and she soon realizes that the killings are getting closer. Katy is another example of someone who seems to be fighting with her own urges, although within Katy they seem less violent and more about her own awakening sexuality, which is another aspect often linked to werewolfism, especially in women (the film Ginger Snaps is a great example of this). But after she is attacked by a stalker, Katy is aided by someone who has come from Romania to help her. From here the story becomes an international chase as Katy returns to Romania to find the truth about her family, the werewolf, and what it all means to her. Followed by her adoptive family and her friends, the stage is set for a bloody confrontation with her biological family. Hampton draws the story as well as co-writing it, and his painted art is beautiful and terrifying. His werewolf is traditional, a monstrous, huge wolfman who dwarfs all around him or her. An original graphic novel, the book is still available from Dark Horse Comics.

Scary Godmother: Wild About Harry

Looking for a werewolf story that's a little more friendly to the young ones? Well, try Scary Godmother: Wild about Harry. Scary Godmother was created by Jill Thompson, an artist best known for these books and her work with Neil Gaiman on The Sandman, and is about Hannah Marie, a little girl who discovers that monsters aren't as scary as she thinks when she meets the Scary Godmother, a witch, and her monster friends. Harry is the resident werewolf, whose both a geek who lives in his gypsy mother's basement and a glutton. But when Harry's mom gets sick of him mooching, she throws him out, and the mini-series follows Harry's (failed) attempts to survive in the world. This isn't a scary story, but a very funny one, as all he Scary Godmother stories are, and is good all ages fare. It is collected in the Scary Godmother Comics Stories volume. Also, as we talk about Jill Thompson books, you should check out Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites, the first collection of Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's stories of a group of animals who defend their town against evil spirits and monsters. It features a story of a dog and his werewolf-boy that is touching and sad, and everything else in it is just as good.

Werewolf By Night

Comicdoms most famous werewolf is Jack Russell, the seventies horror hero known as Werewolf By Night. Yes you could probably argue Wolfsbane of the X-titles has larger fan base, but she's a mutant, not a supernatural werewolf, so for a Halloween post she doesn't really count. While admittedly not as strong a title as Marvel's horror masterpiece Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night is still a great series. It follows jack Russell as he searches for a cure for his lycanthropy, while doing his best to control his feral form on the three nights a month he changes; picture the Incredible Hulk TV series if Banner was a werewolf and fought a lot of monsters. He is supported by Topaz, an empath and mystic who was a love interest as well as ally. Russell would meet and crossover with Dracula, finding ties between his history and that of the count. After first appearing in issues two through four of Marvel Spotlight, Russell's own series ran a respectable forty-three issues. One of the series most lasting legacies is that issue thirty-two introduced Moon Knight, while Marvel Spotlight #4 introduced the concept of the Darkhold, the Mavel Universe's answer to the Necronomicon, a book that has popped up in nearly all of Marvel's horror and supernatural series at one point or another. Werewolf by Night continues to appear semi-regularly throughout the Marvel line, most recently in Mark Waid's Daredevil run, proving you can't keep a good werewolf down.

Werewolves On the Moon Versus Vampires

Again, welcome to a more comedic take on the werewolf. This is a very funny story about three werewolf buddies, Ted, Jeff, and Stan, who figure that if they only change when the moon is full, if they're ON the moon, they'll be in wolf form all the time. And while they're right, there are a few things they didn't count on: one is Maggie Pilgrim, a Moon Patrol captain. The other is a nest of vampires. A fun three issue mini-series, the werewolves are likable, if a bit dim, and the stakes are high despite the comic being a comedy. Alas it is out of print in trade, and the promised sequel Werewolves on the Moon: Moon Mummy Madness has never materialized either, but I would sure read that.

Wolf Moon

Cullen Bunn and Jeremy Haun crafted this year's Vertigo mini-series Wolf Moon around the concept that the werewolf curse doesn't just reshape flesh, I reshapes lives. Not he curse in the way we're used to seeing it, the werewolf in Wolf Moon jumps to a new host every month, destroying everything around them and then leaving them to pick up the pieces. Dillon Chase is a former host of the wolf, who has allied himself with others o try to track it down and kill it. But he's not the only one hunting the wolf, and as he nears another hunter who may or may not be a serial killer murdering former hosts, Dillon has to make some choices about his life and how he can reshape it. Vertigo has been the home of so many great horror comics, it's nice that they were able to add a werewolf series to their catalog, and Wolf Moon is an interesting take on the classic werewolf myth.

The Wolves of Saint August

"The Wolves of Saint August," originally presented in Dark Horse Presents, then reprinted as a prestige format, and currently in Hellboy Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin, is Hellboy's biggest encounter with werewolves, as he goes to investigate a murdered priest and a haunted chapel, only to find a story of a long lasing curse. I'm calling this out for two reasons, despite it being a much shorter work then the longer works I've featured here. One is it's the first appearance of Kate Corrigan, my favorite of the B.P.R.D. cast members. And secondly, you've got Mike Mignola drawing werewolves! How cool is that?

This is just scratching the surface (bad pun not intended but absolutely embraced) of werewolves in comics. There are two series I skipped because I plan to feature them in the future: Joe Kelly's Bad Dog and Art and Franco's Patrick the Wolf Boy that are as different as night and day from each other but are two great comics with a werewolf in the lead.

And that's it for this year's Halloween posts. Enjoy the holiday tomorrow, and we'll see you again. If you survive... ooooOOOOoooo. Ok, you'll all survive, so just have a great time.

October Horrors Week 1: Best on the Racks Right Now

It's October again, my favorite month of the year, and not just because my birthday and wedding anniversary fall in it. It's because October is the spookiest of all months, where ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night are everywhere. I've usually tried to focus October recommended readings and some other posts on horror comics in the past, and hope to do some more of those over the next few weeks, but this week I'm in a time crunch thanks to real life, so I'm going to do a spotlight on the best horror comics I'm reading right now in single issues. I'm not making this a blanket statement, as there are plenty of horror comic I don't read, but if you're in the mood for something spooky, these are a great place to start. So, in no particular order, here we go, and you might want to read this with the lights on.

Afterlife With Archie

If you had said a couple years ago that two of the best horror comics currently being published (if published infrequently) would be coming from modern bastion of wholesome comics Archie Publishing, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. But now, in 2015? Wow, but Archie knows how to do a scary comic. Afterlife With Archie is a zombie comic, where a failed attempt to resurrect Hot Dog, Jughead's dog, leads to a zombie plague ravaging Riverdale and possibly the world. I started reading it for the amazingly gorgeous art from Francesco Francavilla, and while that is as great as I would have expected, it's Robert Aguirre-Sacasa's  story that really keeps you coming back. After an initial heart rending arc where Archie and the gang watch many of their friends turned into flesh eating monsters, the series current second arc is much quieter in some respects. It's a very character focused story, where we see Betty's history through her journals, where Archie talks his problems out with the ghost of Jughead in a hotel suspiciously similar to the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, where Cheryl Blossom has secrets that are way more terrifying than whatever plan she might have had to steal Archie away from Betty and Veronica. There is still some of the classic Archie soap opera, as Veronica is angry a the fact that Archie has chosen Betty, and Mr. Lodge is still the imperious jerk he ever was, and I love that; the comic is still an Archie comic, even with the zombies tearing up Riverdale. I also love the various ties to folklore and literature that Aguirre-Sacasa works in, from the aforementioned Shining scenes, to pacts with the devil, and great Cthulhu himself. Zombies may be the monster du jour right now, in the same way that vampires were in the '90s, but it's the best zombie stories hat are about the people who are trying to survive, who thy really are and how they interact, and not just he people looking to kill the zombies (this is why The Walking Dead has become such a cross media sensation, and is still a title deserving of a look, although I'm not spotlighting it here because it's The Walking Dead and it doesn't need my recommendation). When you add in the fact that you're not only dealing with those themes and using characters like Archie, who have such a rich history, you get a scary comic that really has you invested in who these characters are from page one.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

The companion title to Afterlife With Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is also written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and exists in its own continuity and takes the classic Sabrina the Teenage Witch character and her supporting cast and sets them in a world where witches are far closer to the classic horror icons they are, and he devil is right around the corner. Set in the 1960's, the comic has the feel of some of the classic horror movies of the time, Rosemary's Baby coming particularly to mind. Sabina is coming in to her own as a witch as the story begins, and has to choose between life as a mortal and life as a witch. There's a lot of the classic metaphor of teen angst/life as horror intrinsic in setting the book as a character is coming of age. Sabrina herself is a nice girl who just happens to worship Satan, and has no problem using witchcraft to make the boy she likes like her back. Her aunts, usually played for laughs, are here powerful witches in their own right who we see flashes behind their mortal guises to their true forms which are monstrous in their own right. And while Sabrina is navigating high school and trying to be a normal girl while deciding if she wants to be a normal girl, Madame Satan is looking to destroy her. Madame Satan is Sabrina's dad's old flame who recently escaped imprisonment in hell and finding the man she blames for her fate dead, she decides to take the revenge on the daughter. We get an elaborate plan from Madame Satan, as she makes her way into Sabrina's life as a teacher, and does everything she can to mess with Sabrina's life from behind the scenes. The most recent issue dealt with Harvey, Sabrina's boyfriend, wandering into the black mass in the woods where Sabrina was being confirmed as a bride of Satan, his death, and the ramifications of it all. It's slow burn horror, with moments of truly monstrous terror spaced out between the events that fallout from it, or are simply quiet, making those horror moments all the darker. Robert Hack, artist on the title, has a great style, at times very realistic, at times truly horrific, and that juxtaposition works very well. I don't know how much research he has done, but the book looks and feels authentically '60s. If you've tried Afterlife and haven't given Sabrina a shot, it's well worth your time, and if you are a fan of classic horror, Sabrina is a book that will work for you.

Colder: Toss the Bones

I wrote a full recommended reading on the original Colder in October a couple years ago, and as the final mini-series in the trilogy debuted this past Wednesday, I thought I'd toss it in here, even though I haven't read the first issue of Toss the Bones yet, on the strength of the original and its sequel, Bad Seed. Colder is the story of Declan and Rese, a couple with a most unusual met cute. You see Reese is a nurse, and Declan was a patient in a waking coma of sorts that she took care of, whose body temperature was unusually cold. Only eventually, Declan woke up, pursued by various evil entities hat feed on or grow or embrace madness, and Declan has to escape them, often by going into a supernatural world parallel our own called the Hungry World, where the things that people afflicted with mental illness's delusions are made real, or possible the world where what they see really exists. The main monsters of Colder, Nimble Jack from he first mini-series and Swivel from the second, aren't traditional monsters of any sort, unless you can view them as vampires of a kind, feeding on something that people produce. Jack is a vicious and cruel trickster figure, with a mad laugh, while Swivel looks like a farmer, and views the madness he sows in a similar way. There is a real hear o the series, as Declan and Reese have a wonderful relationship. But I ill say, as great as Paul Tobin's scripts are, it's Juan Ferreyra who steals the show over and over. While he can absolutely draw people looking like people and doing normal people things, he's a master of creatures and at things being just a bit off. Nimble Jack looks human, but the way he rests his body is a times just a bit off, making him look unsettling. The Hungry World is full of terrifying creatures, all of which I would call beautiful in design and execution if they weren't so hideous. The mythology and world building has been phenomenal, creating this fascinating world of madness unlike anything I've ever seen, and with the final mini-series having just started, it's a great time to catch up and be there for the finale.

Harrow County

The quiet country town is often the site of a murder mystery, where the town keeps its secrets. While urban horror is now more prevalent than country horror (except for the cabin in the woods kind, which is an old chestnut that never goes away), Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook's Harrow County is a country horror story in the grand tradition. Emmy is a girl who lives out on a remote farm with her father. But shortly after she reaches he age she is considered an adult (there's growing up and horror linked again), Emmy begins to display powers, and the local townsfolk start showing up with pitchforks and torches, and I'm not talking metaphorically. Soon, Emmy learns secrets of Harrow County, secrets involving witches, artificial people made real, all the "haints" that occupy the town and its surroundings, and her own origins, which are nothing like she expected. Cullen Bunn, who became a favorite writer of mine with his weird Western The Sixth Gun and Tyler Crook, whose work on B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth is some of the best Mignolaverse art not by Mignola himself, craft a moody story of skeletons, skinless bodies whose skin is still psychically connected to it, a good witch, and with the new arc, another witch who I have a feeling is not so good. When you add in some fun backmatter, like Bunn's tales of supernatural experiences in early letter columns, and a one page back up in most issues that tells another scary story of the supernatural in Harrow County, Harrow County is one of he best looking and best written new series of 2015.

Gotham by Midinght

A lot of comics mash up two genres: the weird Western is a good example, and a lot of times, superhero comics take on aspects of some other genre. But Gotham by Midnight finds a way to mash up three genres, superhero, horror, and police procedural, in a way that not only works, but works really well. Headlined by Jim Corrigan, better known as the human host for he wrathful angel called The Spectre, Gotham by Midnight follows the Midnight Shift, a group of police officers and related professionals brought together by Jim Gordon when he was commissioner to deal with Gotham's supernatural elements. The rest of the squad include Det. Lisa Drake, who is part fairy and has the abilities of a banshee to know when death is near, Dr. Szandor Tarr, forensics and a bit of a mad scientist, Sister Justine, who encountered rue demonic evil and now does her best to help stop it, and their commanding officer, Lt. Weaver. The cases the Midnight Shift have encountered have led them into Slaughter Swamp, to a pair of news pundits who made a deal with the devil, a haunting at Powers Coporation, and a powerful demon that has been working its claws into Gotham for a long time. The police aspect comes into play as Sgt. Rook from Internal Affairs arrives. Rook starts out in issue one as  the way in for the readers, meeting the different members of the Midnight Shift, and encountering the weird. But instead of becoming an ally, as this sort of thing usually goes in fiction, Internal Affairs comes down harder on he Midnight Shift after Rook's investigation, meaning another player is brought in, a lawyer to help the Shift, Kate Spencer, who was the final hero to bar the name Manhunter before Flashpoint, a favorite character of mine, who I'm excited to see back. The most recent issue, issue nine, has cast some doubts on what the Spectre is, and was a great jumping on point, filling you in on what you might not know while also setting up the series final issues, as it has sadly been caught in DC's most recent purge. The art has been great, starting out with Ben Templesmith and his utterly surreal, expressionistic style, and then followed up by Juan Ferreyra, whose work here is as impressive as his work on Colder is. Gotham City has always had a spooky side, and Gotham by Midnight shines a spotlight on those darker corners.

Outcast

Now, I mentioned The Walking Dead before, and everyone out there has at least hard of it. What fewer people have heard of, at least for the moment, is Outcast, Robert Kirkman's other horror comic, this one with artist Paul Azaceta. Outcast is he story of Kyle Barnes, a man plagued by demons. Literally plagued by demons. His mother was possessed, his wife was possessed, and he demons have destroyed his life. At the beginning of the series he's living by himself as a virtual shut in when Reverend Anderson, the pastor who once tried to help Kyle's mother, comes to him for help. Because Anderson believes that Kyle has the power to cast out demons. And once Kyle starts, things begin to spin. Whether demons have been as prevalent in the world up til now, or if Kyle's presence is drawing them out, and exactly why they call him Outcast remain some of the series' mysteries. And then there's Sidney, better known as, well, the Devil. Sidney has entered Kyle's orbit, saving his niece, killing his neighbor and moving into the neighbor's house, and marking the Reverend with an inverted pentagram to scare him off, or at least slow him down. Again, Sidney's motivations are vague, but that's OK. One of the keys of Outcast is that mystery, something that Kirkman is slooooowly paying out. Twelve issues in, we know considerably more than what we did in issue one, but there's a lot left to learn. Kyle is a very sympathetic main character, someone who you feel for. He's a guy who not only can't see his daughter or ex-wife (she got a restraining order against him, since she can't remember being possessed and all she knows is she woke up bruised and beaten), and who fears for the people around him since most of the people he loves have been possessed. Kirkman has also spent time fleshing out the supporting cast, like Kyle's foster-sister, Megan, her husband, Mark, and their daughter, Holly, so you care about them too, and dread what you know is going to be the horrors coming their way. There are two kinds of horror, the kind where you root for the killer or monster and the kind where you fear for the victims. Outcast falls firmly in the latter, and I have a feeling there's only more dread to come.

Nailbiter

OK, I'm going to be up front. I really enjoy all the comics on this list. But if I had to choose a favorite horror comic currently being published, it would be Nailbiter, from Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson. Nailbiter isn't supernatural horror like the other books on this list, but is in the model of the slasher film, although I wouldn't be surprised if something supernatural appears by the end. I've reviewed a bunch of issues of Nailbiter, so you can go check out those reviews, but here's the series in broad strokes. Buckaroo, Oregon has a particularly dubious claim to fame: over a dozen of is residents have become serial killers. And one of them, Edward Charles Warren, called the Nailbiter for his choice of victims being people who bite their nails, is found not guilty and returns home. But while Warren's return serves as the inciting incident of the series, it's when Agent Carroll of the FBI, the man who brought in Warren, calls his old friend Finch of army intelligence to tell him that he's fond the secret to Buckaroo's propensity for spawning murderers that he series begins. Finch arrives to find Carroll missing, and strikes up an alliance with local sheriff, Shannon Crane, to find his friend and maybe the secret of Buckaroo along the way. The entire cast are well written and varied, from Alice, an outsider girl who feels she's destined to be the next Buckaroo Butcher, to Reverend Fairgold, the local man of God who has his own set of issues, to Warren himself, who is one of those slick, charismatic killers. The characters and the story are phenomenal, and it's paced to perfection. Williamson and Henderson know how to lay out a sequence to absolutely ramp up the tension. Issue nine has a sequence in Crane's house that is so absolutely perfect, so perfectly laid out, that I can think of few scenes in a comic that sent more chills up my spine. The third arc of Nailbiter wrapped up a couple months ago, an arc that answered some questions about Buckaroo while opening up a bunch of others, and the new one starts this month, so there are three trades waiting to be read just in time or Halloween.


Oh, and before I go, something truly scary... This week is Banned Books Week. I'm a supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and any other organization that champions free speech. Every idea may not be right for everyone, but everyone should have the right to share their ideas, and books, be they novels, comics, or anything else, are still my favorite way to dive into an idea. Comics are being banned constantly, partially because people don't understand that comics are for everyone, and partially because people generally like to ban things they themselves don't understandthis link over the CBLDF website. and come back here next week for more horror comics that I'm sure have been banned somewhere.

Greetings from Battleworld: Secret Wars Week 13

In an ambitious turn, Dan Grote reviews not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR Secret Wars tie-ins this week. read on, True Believers...

X-Men ’92 #2

Story: Chad Bowers and Chris Sims

Art: Scott Koblish and Matt Milla

When we last left the X-Men of the ’90s, ’00s villain Cassandra Nova (or more accurately the Shadow King possessing Nova’s body) had them hooked up to machines, trying to cure them of their violent tendencies. And so we get that lovely trope of characters being shown their deepest desires and innermost demons while being psychically manipulated.

Wolverine goes first, because of course he does. Logan’s sequence is an exercise in seeing how many Easter eggs can dance on the head of a pin, as he wrestles first with a cadre of his then-greatest non-Sabretooth foes – Lady Deathstryke, Cyber, Silver Samurai, Omega Red and Viper – then with every version of himself that was ever made into an action figure, from first-appearance Wolverine with the whiskers on his cowl to Uncanny X-Force Wolverine with the black-and-gray costume. And at the end they all hug. For serious.

However much they’re paying artist Scott Koblish, it isn’t enough. Given the number of cameos, throwbacks and downright homages – especially in the Wolverine section – Koblish spends the entire issue playing chameleon, mimicking the designs of John Byrne, Barry Windsor-Smith, Chris Bachalo, Joe Madureira and others, many times in the same panel.

As Nova makes her way through the team her motivations become a bit clearer. The Shadow King-powered Nova is in touch with the psychic energies of everyone on Battleworld, including the X-Men of other realities, nearly all of which are much darker (Age of Apocalypse, House of M, Inferno, etc.). She claims if she doesn’t turn the X-Men of Westchester into a patch of peaceful vegetables, the same fate will befall their domain.

“I’ll die before I see the Thors place a ‘suggested for mature residents’ sign outside Westchester,” she tells Storm, once again winking so hard at the reader as to risk being stuck with permanent Popeye face.

While the X-Men are trapped in Nova’s Clear Mountain, another team of mutants is trying to track them down to rescue them. If the X-Force at the end of this issue – Cable, Domino, Bishop, Archangel, Psylocke and Deadpool – would have appeared together on the original Saturday morning cartoon, 13-year-old me would have lost it (and possibly asked why, if it were X-Force, Cannonball, Boom-Boom, Sunspot, et al, weren’t there). Cable even yells “Stab his eyes!” which I don’t think I’ve seen on a page in 20 years.

Another made-up team of familiar faces in this book is the Rej-X, freaks who failed Nova’s mind tests and have been locked away to strip Sentinels for parts. Among them are Masque, Feral, Artie and Leech, a pre-horseman Caliban, Sauron, Maggot, Chamber, and one of Sinister’s Nasty Boys, the purple one.

Guys, when you read a book in 2015 that has Maggot and a Nasty Boy in it, you know the Dream of the ’90s is alive.

But the best cameo in this book – and there may be more this issue than in the first one – is the 1992 X-Men arcade game, which Jubilee kills time playing while she waits for the rest of the team. The arcade game debuted the same year as the cartoon but featured a decidedly more ’80s team of X-Men, including Nightcrawler, Colossus, and, much to Jubilee’s consternation, Dazzler.

Finally, a stray thought: Where’s Morph? He’s gotta show up at some point, right?

 

Thors #2

Story: Jason Aaron

Art: Chris Sprouse, Goran Sudzuka, Karl Story, and Marte Gracia

Someone is killing all of Battleworld’s Jane Fosters, and now there’s one less Thor to find out who.

The second issue of Thors opens with a call for vengeance, as Doom’s hammer-wielding police force spreads out and roughs up every Hulk, zombie, Ultron and Morbius who might have an inkling as to why Beta Ray Thor was killed and by whom.

Meanwhile, Thorlief Golmen, aka the Ultimate Thor, continues his investigation into the Foster murders, only to discover a fellow Thor – make that ex-fellow Thor – has been collecting evidence of his own.

There’s no way to tell for sure whether this de-powered, ax-wielding, one-armed Thor is the 616 Odinson. He claims to know things the other Thors don’t – as Loki did in the previous issue – but he reveals little before sinking back into the shadows.

The end of the issue reveals a new body – this time not a Jane Foster – and a new suspect. Well, new for Thorlief, anyway. Whatever’s going on, it may be connected to the truth about Battleworld, how much of which people know varies by book, domain and creative team. But it’s definitely way too soon to tell, and kudos to Jason Aaron, Chris Sprouse, et al, for keeping us in the dark while keeping us entertained with this Asgardian police procedural.

MODOK: Assassin #3

Story: Christopher Yost

Art: Amilcar Pinna, Terry Pallot and Rachelle Rosenberg

There’s violence, there’s ultraviolence and there’s this issue of MODOK: Assassin, in which practically anybody who’s ever killed somebody in the Marvel Universe is sent after MODOK and his crush, Angela-Thor.

Who’s everybody? Well, there’s the Scarlet Spider, the Grim Reaper, Jack-O-Lantern, Boomerang, Screaming Mimi, Bushwacker, the Ghost, Hit Monkey, Black Widow, the Punisher, Typhoid Mary, Wolverine, Sabretooth, the Kingpin, the Shroud, Viper, a resurrected Doctor Octopus (remember when he died in the first issue?), and, finally, the Mindless Ones: empty, demonic beings who generally serve Dormammu.

Many of these characters die in the most grisly ways possible: Decapitation via chainsaw, psychic energy blast, having their head crushed in the bare hands of a Thor, getting run over, impalement, getting sliced in half from head to crotch, etc. Flying eyeballs, freshly loosed from their sockets, are not an uncommon sight. There hasn’t been a celebration of cartoon violence this loud and proud since the Itchy and Scratchy shorts on The Simpsons. The only reason this isn’t a MAX title is because nobody’s cursing or having sex. Seriously, good on you, Amilcar Pinna.

Apart from all this psychotic glee, however, there’s still a mystery to solve. Someone back at Thor HQ finally realized one of their own is missing (ironically, it’s Beta Ray Thor, who, if you’ve been reading Thors, or even the review of Thors above this, you know has been killed). Angela-Thor has been de-hammered and cloaked so, while MODOK can see her (and continually comment on her beauty and the way she wields a sword), he can’t “see” her with any sort of tracking device, and the Thors also can’t get a read on her using any of their science or magic. Clearly, someone wants her out of the picture, likely the same person who sent the Mindless Ones after her at the end of this issue.

Next issue, I fully expect a higher body count, more mayhem and, maybe, some light plot resolution.

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #3

Story: Cullen Bunn

Art: Matteo Lolli and Ruth Redmond

Part of what has made Deadpool Deadpool more and more over the years is the fact that, while he’s an unhinged psychopath with no qualms about murdering for fun and profit, he still knows how to make a heroic sacrifice.

That side of the character is front and center in this revisionist take on the original Secret Wars. Last issue, he gave up his cool lenticular shield to help Reed Richards rescue the heroes from the mountain they were trapped under. This issue he sacrifices his good looks, and his feelings for the alien healer Zsaji, to resurrect the other heroes. Doubtless DP is not done sacrificing yet, especially with one more issue to go and the fact remaining that nobody will actually remember him being there.

But if Deadpool is good, he’s chaotic good at best. And according to this issue, he maaaaaay have had a hand in creating Venom. When the heroes find the Star Trek-like replicator machine that makes new outfits, Wade gets his mitts on the black alien-symbiote costume before Spider-Man. (His review: “Could use a few more pouches.” Amen, brother.) But when he feels the symbiote feeding off his thoughts, he promptly removes the costume and passes the savings on to Spidey. Though not before a dress-up montage that shows him looking like everyone from Captain America to Cruella de Vil.

By the end of the issue, Dr. Doom has defeated the Beyonder and taken his power for himself (sound familiar?), and Deadpool tries to reason with him, newly handsome person to newly handsome person. One guess how that goes.

Greetings from Battleworld: Secret Wars Week 7

Thors #1

Story: Jason Aaron

Art: Chris Sprouse, Karl Story and Marte Gracia

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: the Thors who investigate crime, and the Sheriff of Agamotto who prosecutes the offenders. These are their stories.

CHUNG-CHUNG.

Who would’ve thought a bunch of blond guys flying around with hammers and battle armor would make for a great police procedural?

Thors has all the elements of a great cop show: Partner protagonists whom the other cops find unorthodox, a murder of the week, fellow officers who stand around making snarky comments and bragging about their records, a drunk racist cop, a rookie who barfs at the scene of his first homicide, an angry captain who wants results, dammit, a forensics (Thorensics?) nerd, primetime network TV levels of swearing, etc.

It’s also got random Ghost Rider attacks and a Groot-Thor that says only “I am Thor” and has a cape made of leaves, in perhaps my favorite bit of stunt-casting in this book. And while all the characters speak in Marvel’s Official Thor Font, their dialogue could have come right out of any episode of “Law & Order” or “NYPD Blue.”

The central Thors in this book are Thorlief Golmen, the Thor of the Ultimate Universe, whom the other Thors have derisively nicknamed “The Ultimate Thor” for his ability to get stuck with cases none of the other Thors wants, and Beta Ray Thor, the one with the horse face. True to form, the two get stuck with the latest “Allthing” – a bizarre case that must be solved immediately to avoid the wrath of God Emperor Doom. Describing the Allthing would give too much away, but suffice it to say it’s a case that could only exist on a planet in which multiple realities and times exist simultaneously.

Rounding out the cast are Odin as the lawspeaker (angry captain), Frog Thor (Throg) as the forensics guy, and Groot, Storm and the Destroyer, among others, as fellow officers. And, of course, keep your eyes peeled for cameos.

Serious kudos to writer Jason Aaron, who since 2012 has continued to find new ways to play with the god of thunder, from telling a story across time to giving the hammer to Jane Foster to turning the Worthy into a multiversal peacekeeping force. And to artist Chris Sprouse for making sure each Thor is distinguishable from the next.

Also, whether intended or not, this book makes me want to rewatch one of my favorite episodes of Community, season 3’s “Advanced Lupine Urology.”

CHUNG-CHUNG

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #2

Story: Cullen Bunn

Art: Matteo Lolli and Ruth Redmond

Wade Wilson’s heretofore untold adventures in the original Secret Wars continue with an explanation of why our sometimes-hero looks like the protagonist of a Hal Needham movie, a series of flashbacks told to the Lizard and the introduction of a love story.

A major part of the plot of this issue is the lenticular shields that were packaged with the action figures that were essentially the driving force of Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck’s original series. Deadpool finds a whole mess of them amid a fight with Spider-Man and takes one for himself, then brags about his cool new weapon to the other heroes until Reed Richards dismantles it to save them after the Molecule Man traps them in a mountain.

I’m enjoying the nonlinear nature of the book, as the constant flashing forward and back keeps the plot – most of which was pre-existing – from being completely predictable. It helps that this is a four-issue miniseries as opposed to the original 12, which forces tighter writing and limits the original’s major plot points to a highlight reel. It’s also always fun to revisit classic superhero fashions, such as Storm’s Mohawk or Cyclops’ plain blue spandex togs.

Speaking of which, art for next issue teases Deadpool in Spider-Man’s black costume. Maybe it’s a feint, maybe it’s not. Either way, I’m 99.9 percent certain hijinks will ensue. See ya there!

Ms. Marvel #16
Story: G. Willow Wilson
Art: Adrian Alphona

While the various Secret Wars tie-ins take place on the hodgepodge planet of Battleworld, the "Last Days" tie-ins follow heroes and villains as the last two Earths prepare to crash into each other. Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel, starts the story out still mourning the fact that her crush, fellow Pakistani Inhuman Kamran, turned out to be a villain to a hot dog vendor. But as she sees people charging out of New York City into her own native Jersey City, Kamala heads to NYC where she sees the other Earth coming. I hadn't realized that you could only see the point of incursion from New York before, and I might have missed it, but it's a nice touch. But just because things are only visible from New York, doesn't mean there isn't chaos across the river. So, Kamala starts out by getting people to head to her school, which has been reinforced to deal with robot attacks and is protected by "hipster viking magic," which credit where credit is due, is pretty cool. I love that new-Loki is being called a hipster Viking, by the way; it makes me smile. But when Kamala heads home to get her family, she finds Kamran there and her brother gone, paying off the hint from last issue that another Khan might be an Inhuman. We've seen Kamala with her friends in danger before, sure, but this is different. This is family. This is classic Marvel hero tropes, like Spider-Man having to fight the Green Goblin, who knows he's Peter Parker. It's a test, and Kamala does what she knows is right, which is make sure everything is settled and safe at the school before doing what she has to for her family. It's a testament to her strength that she doesn't give in and abandon her responsibility. The final page of the issue sets up the meeting that readers have been waiting for since issue one. Even if the world is ending it's an exciting time for Ms. Marvel fans.

Runaways #1
Story: Noelle Stevenson
Art: Sanford Greene

Only on Battleworld could you find a school more prone to get you killed than Xavier's, the Victor Von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths. Runaways is the story of The Breakfast Club of Battleworld, a bunch of kids who are part of a program to find the best and brightest who are all rebellious. It's an interesting combination of characters, from various eras of young heroes from the 90s to the past few years. I was most excited to see Amadeus Cho and the Delphyne Gorgon from The Incredible Hercules pop up, but it's also nice to see Molly Hayes from the original Runaways there as well. Readers are treated to a lot of teen bickering and fighting mixed in with the kind of things you'd expect to see at a school dedicated to Doom: end of years finals the end in expulsion if you and a team don't win at some sort of elaborate test. It's a fun comic, with these different characters playing off each other. I like that Skaar, son of Hulk, becomes Amadeus Cho's bodyguard and buddy, fitting well with Cho's usual m.o. of palling around with someone physically bigger than him. The identity and power inverted version of Cloak & Dagger are also a nice touch. And introducing a new character in the middle of it, Sanna Strand, Frostbite, makes me wonder if she's going to be a new important character after Secret Wars ends, or if she's cannon fodder. And I love that tough Jubilee has a girl gang right out of a 90s movie, the include the Gorgon and Jubilee's best friend/ex Pixie. All these characters, in detention after a fight between Frostbite and Jubilee, wind up on a team for the final exam. Noelle Stevenson is so good at inverting tropes in Lumberjanes, I'm sure there is more than the typical teen movie set up of a bunch of different people must work together and learn that they're not all that different, especially as we see the headmistress of the school and her right hand hall monitor, Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier, have it out for the Runaways (a title never used in the comic). I don't think Molly Ringwald ever faced someone trying to kill her in a John Hughes movie, so I can only expect more action and excitement as the kids try to make it out; I hope they curvive the experience.