Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/27 Part 2

And we're back with more reviews from last week's comics. Today we have books from Image and IDW...

Atomic Robo & The Ring of Fire #5
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener, Anthony Clark, & Jeff Powell

So, after spending much of his most recent mini-series as not much more than a head, Atomic Robo has a body again and is on a mission, so of course that means only one thing: Fight with a cybernetic Nazi astronaut while trying to save the world. The conclusion of Atomic Robo & The Ring of Fire is the most action oriented issue of this series, as Robo tries to power up a Nazi space weapon to destroy the Biomega Island, a mass of biomatter that if it reaches land will grow to devour and cover all life on Earth, and Majestic-12s Titan mechs fight to destroy the island themselves. The clock is ticking, not just because the Biomega is nearing landfall, but if Robo can't stop the Island himself, Majestic's only answer is nukes, and, well, we all know that's probably not good for Earth. The Titan battle with the Biomega, which began last issue, continues to be impressive work from artist Scott Wegener, not just because he does a great job of keeping what is a massive fight coherent for readers to follow, but because his monster designs are excellent. Robo's plot is equally as exciting and considerably more amusing, as Robo makes his way through the Nazi Longinus satellite while in contact with his team of Action Scientists. The interaction between Robo and his team is one of my favorite aspects of the series, with great banter; Robo's particularly dry sense of humor and delivery as he's fighting a cyber-Nazi and crashing to Earth in a satellite makes the situation, which is still dire, seem like it will all work out in the end (and it does, of course. The comic is named after him, after all). The end of the issue begins to establish a new status quo, for both Robo and the world at large. The last three Robo mini-series ("Savage Sword of Doctor Dinosaur," "Knights of the Golden Circle," and "Ring of Fire") have left Robo is a strange new world, and it seems like he's interested in changing his own life, but there are new threats hinted at and old ones that might not be as gone as he thinks; the last page of the series is a classic last minute horror movie moment. We'll have to wait a while to find out what's next for Robo, as the next series, Atomic Robo & the Temple of Od, moves us back to an earlier adventure in Robo's life, but be it the past or the present, there are few comics as exciting as Atomic Robo.

Cry Havoc #1
Story: Simon Spurrier
Art: Ryan Kelly, Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge, & Matt Wilson

When I choose a new series from Image to readm it's usually based on the writer. But the ads for Cry Havoc declared, "It's not about a lesbian werewolf going to war. Except it kind of is." And if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know how I feel about werewolves, so I thought Id give it a shot, despite having little to no experience with Simon Spurrier. And it's a very solid debut issue. The issue takes place in three distinct time periods: The first is "The End," the farthest down the timeline, with our lead, Louise Canton, in a cage and partially transformed; "The Beginning" is the farthest back, showing Lou shortly before she was attacked by a werewolf and moves through shortly after the attack;  and "The Middle" shows her arrival in Afghanistan with the military. All are drawn by Ryan Kelly but colored by three different artists that give each section a different feel. That style is one of the things that makes this comic such an engaging read. Not only is the alternating timeline keeping you off kilter and as lost as Lou clearly feels, but those different colorists really bring out different aspects of Kelly's art. It's also easy to keep track of the time periods as the panel borders are a different color for each time zones: red for the end, blue for the beginning, and yellow for the middle. There's a lot going on in this issue, with three plots that are all really one plot all running at once, and Lou is a likable lead, even though I don't feel like we get a whole feel for her as a character yet. Each Lou is different, and part of the series journey to me will be seeing how she moves from one phase to the next. There's not a lot of monster action, but the glimpses we get of Kelly's werewolf design is phenomenal, a large monstrous beast. I also like the way he represents Lou's senses kicking into the heightened werewolf ones, these blue lines that radiate out from her, be they representing sound or scent. There are a lot of questions posed in this first issue, questions about the werewolf that turned Lou, about whether the military will really cure her, what the motive of Lynn Odell, the woman Lou was  brought into a war zone to hunt, are, and I'll definitely be back to see where all these questions lead.

Ghostbusters International #1
Story: Erik Burnham
Art: Dan Schoening & Luis Antonio Delgado

The team of Burnham and Schoening return with the continued adventures of the original Ghostbusters. After the past couple of adventures the team has had, meeting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other dimensional versions of themselves, the team is back to fighting ghosts and not gods (so far anyway). A big shaggy werewolf looking ghost is attacking the UN, and what seems like a run of the mill capture job turns into something more as an unrelated haunting pops up at the same time and Egon is injured. The boys are still able to pull it out and stop the ghost, and the additional fees to the UN are paid be mystery industrialist Erland Vinter, who asks to meet with the Ghostbusters to discuss a business proposition. The tile of the series sort of gives away what Vinter's plan is, but we won't learn more about that until next issue. Aside from the initial capture, the issue is filled with little character moments.The Burnham/Scoening Ghostbusters comics have done a really solid job of developing the characters around the Ghostbusters, so a scene with Janine and Jenny Moran, a comics original character who is currently the team's liaison with the city, is as interesting as when Ray, Winston, and Peter go out for a drink to share information about Vinter. And Egon, recuperating from an acid spitting ghost attack, is clearly into something, but it's something he doesn't share with Kylie Griffin, a character from the late-90s Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon who has been a regular in the series for some time now, and who I really like. I'm hoping for more interaction between her and Egon in the future. There's also a two page "Haunted America" short at the back of the issue in the form of a report from FBI agent, ally, and sometime Ghostbuster Melanie Ortiz, about a haunting in Florida; these shorts that have been a regular part of IDW's Ghostbusters comics are a nice bonus, and always mean a little more bang for your buck. There are a lot of seeds for upcoming plots in this issue, lots of little moments. Since Burnham started writing Ghostbusters he's played an almost Claremontian long game, dropping little hints and moments that don't pay off for some time. I'm curious as ever to see where these new threads take us.

Southern Bastards #13
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Jason Latour

OK, this might not be much of a shocking confession, but I'm going to say it up front: I don't care about football. Sports in general don't do much for me, and fiction about sports can be interesting if it's dealing with the personalities, but actually reading/watching the game? Meh. So when I saw this week's Southern Bastards was going to take place during the homecoming game, I got a bit worried. This is one of my favorite comics out there right now, and football is an integral part of it, but I wasn't sure if I could take twenty-four pages of football. I shouldn't have been surprised that Jason Aaron and Jason Latour kept the issue engaging, mixing the football game, which I admit did keep me interested as I didn't know which way it was going to turn out, with Coach Boss before and after the game. This avoided a problem I often find in sports fiction. You know the team of scrappy underdogs you're rooting for is going to pull off a miracle and win in the end. In Jason Aaron's usually dark universe, victory is never quite as assured. The game does not go Craw County's way, as nothing seems to be for Coach Boss, the antagonist of the series who we've frankly spent more time with than the protagonists at this point. It feels like Boss is surrounded by troubles on all sides. The mayor and his wife are coming down on him hard, his longtime friend Coach Big has killed himself, and his team is doing a piss poor job. It's fascinating that you can empathize with a character who was introduced as such a stock, southern-fried villain, but I actually feel for Boss. I don't like him, and he's deserving of this crapstorm he's in, but I can't help feel a pang of sadness for him. But Boss is a guy who goes down swinging, and his post-game confrontation with the gigantic running back from arch rival team Wetumpka County Warriors shows that Boss still has plenty of fight in him. It's a very solid showing from Southern Bastards, and while I might not care about football, I care about what happens to these characters, and the series works like a good game of football, where every hard fought inch gets you closer to a touchdown and the end of the game. And this endgame is going to be bloodier than any ever in a football stadium, I have no doubt.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 11/25

The Fade Out #11
Story: Ed Brubaker
Art: Sean Phillips & Elizabeth Breitweiser

The penultimate issue of Ed Brubaker's serialized novel about corruption and decadence in old time Hollywood, The Fade Out, shows off everything great that this combination of creators can do. The issue is a mix of action and character, and fills in one of the last holes in the web of characters, giving us some details about the relationship between our block screenwriter protagonist, Charlie Parish, and the murdered movie star Valeria Sommers. The issue opens with the story of what happened between Charlie and Valeria, and in a book that can be so sordid, the scene of tenderness, of two people who are both so lost connecting and simply being there with and for each other, stands out all the more starkly in its beauty and tragedy. From the end of that scene, of Charlie standing in the surf as the sun rises, we cut to night at a diner, where Charlie is talking to his writing partner (or recently the blacklisted writer he's been fronting for), Gil Mason, who he tells his theory of exactly what is going on, a tale of FBI blackmail, molestation, and murder. But the two writers have no proof, so they head out to the ranch of Al Kamp, the figurehead of Victory Studios, hoping to use his dementia to get him to confess to the horrors he did to Val and other child stars. But these guys are writers; they're not cops, P.I.s or any other kind of professional, so when they sneak onto Kamp's ranch through a dark forest beautifully drawn by Phillips and colored ominously by Elizabeth Breitweiser, they find a mostly empty house, a corpse, and one last guard, leading to a chase through the woods, a gunshot, and a gutpunch of a last panel. One issue left, and I can't wait to see the ending of what has become my favorite work by the tremendous Brubaker/Phillips team.

Ghostbusters Annual 2015
Main Story: Erik Burnham
Art: Dan Schoening & Luis Antonio Delgado

After a couple crossover mini-series, one with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and one with their own animated counterparts, the Ghostbusters go back to doing what they do best: busting ghosts. The opening tease has one of the creepiest moments I've seen in a Ghostbusters comic, with a woman waking up with... well, that would be telling, and horror so depends on the surprise of it, I don't want to ruin it. The Ghostbusters, still repairing the firehouse after their confrntation with the god Proteus, are called in by the NYPD detective equivalent of Harvey Bullock to look into the woman's case, and find a specter in her house dressed in a tall hat and cape carrying an hourglass. They blast the ghost, which explodes, and things seem normal for a few pages. But if you looked at the cover, you know that the threat is the Sandman, so it doesn't take long for Ray to realize something is wrong with his friends, and when his spirit guide, the Blues Brothers clad John Belushi, reappears (every time this happens, it's great!), he confirms that he's in a dream, so it's up to Ray to travel through the dreams of his friends and free them. Peter's dream in a memory of a scene from the original Ghostbusters movie, made considerably weirder by Ray taking Dana Barrett's place, and Peter is happily sprung from this. Winston, though, is aware he's in a dream, dreaming of his wedding to Tiyah from the previous ongoing, the wedding that was wiped from reality to stop Tiamat from destroying the world, and we see an anger in Winston that he hasn't vented in the real world, a weariness of how being a Ghostbuster has affected his life, and I wonder if this is going to payoff in the future. Egon is also aware that he's in a dream, remembering the time he traveled into Janine's subconscious to save her and knowing this feels the same, and it turns out his refusal to sleep is what called the Sandman to the team. The guys are able to save Egon at the last minute from a horrible fate, naturally, and everything works out. There are also a series of short strips at the back of the issue, little one pagers that give a spotlight on different characters, not just the Ghostbusters, but Janine, Louis Tully, Slimer, and a couple others. They're all a lot of fun, but the highlight is the final one, a four pager that explains why Peter gave up the talk show he had during Ghostbusters 2. This is a great, continuity light story that sets up some future stories and will let those who haven't been reading all of IDW's Ghostbusters comics know what they're missing.

Groot #6
Story: Jeff Loveness
Art: Brian Kesinger

After their long and winding path, Groot and his buddy Rocket finally arrive on Earth in the final issue of this mini-series, which I frankly had forgotten had been their goal the entire time after all the space hijinks. And getting their, they check off the things the different Guardians gave them on a checklist of stuff to do on Earth. And as you might imagine, it's not like your average tourist to-do list, although they do check out a rock concert and watch a movie. I also have to give creators Jeff Loveness and Brian Kesigner credit: the battle between Groot and Rocket and a bunch of C- and D-List villains is great. Rocket's, "Well, I just shot a Dinosaur-Man in a loincloth. I'm having a great time," is definitely quote of the week for me. And Kesinger's X-Men from when Kitty told the boys to go party with the X-Men are great. Teen Scott and Jean's awkward chat is charming, and Kesinger's style has a very cartoon sensibility; it reminds me of the character style from certain Disney films (which makes sense, since a little bit of research shows he worked for Disney for years). His Groot and Rocket are wonderfully expressive, with charming facial expressions that tell stories all their own; it's important to have an expressive lead when all he says is one sentence over and over. That does change when Groot gets into a telepathic conversation with Jean Grey, and relays his origin to her. We've known a bit about Groot and why he's no longer welcome on Planet X, but as far as I know, this is the first time we've heard this whole story, and it ends with a heart-tugging scene as Groot goes and does exactly what he came to Earth to do, and meets an old friend for the first time in years. The Groot mini-series has been a delightful all-ages adventure across the galaxy that winds up reinforcing its themes about friendship and loyalty in a perfect way.

Itty Bitty Hellboy: The Search for the Were-Jaguar #1
Story & Art: Art Baltazar & Franco

It's always a good day when Art and Franco are back with another fun all ages book. This time around Itty Bitty Hellboy and Liz Sherman are heading out to the island of the Rogers with a bag of underpants, since there's only one pair of those metal underpants on the island. It's a strange and hilarious set up for a story, and it works perfectly in the absurdly adorable universe that I feel all of Art and Franco's comics are set in. All the rest of the gang are there, with Rasputin and Kroenen looking to photograph the mythic were-jaguar, Lobster Johnson and his lobster partner, Smitty chasing the villains, and Abe and his little sister Eve out swimming. And we get the first appearance of Itty Bitty Kate Corrigan, who looks to be a slightly older kid. There's stuff with Roger (the original Roger) and his brothers getting underwear, the villains and the Lobster getting caught up in trees, and the were-jaguar popping in and out of panels. It's just an absolutely fun comic, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Hellboy and his friends go after this issue.

Rick and Morty #8
Story: Zac Gorman
Art: Zac Gorman & Ryan Hill 
Back-up Art: Marc Ellerby & Ryan Hill

Nothing is EVER as it seems in the multiverse of Rick and Morty. What looks like a simple Christmas story is going to be anything but. We've never gotten a Rick and Morty Christmas episode since the show has aired its two seasons in the summer, so the comic is filling in that gap with this, the weirdest Christmas story I've ever read. And that, friends, is a compliment. Off an alternate Earth where Christmas is Blumbus, where Santa is instead Mr. Chimney, and there;s an extra tradition called the Blumberflarg, and if you've ever seen or read Rick and Morty, anything they run across in these alternate worlds is going to end poorly for one or the other, and probably the one is Morty.In this case, after arguing about whether Blumbus is nice or creepy, Rick goes off to drink and Morty literally bumps into melody, a pretty girl who feels bad Morty has no one on Blumbus and invites him back to her place. While Rick runs eventually finds an open bar, and starts drinking with a morose holiday drunk, Morty goes back to Melody's house and seems to be in the middle of a Mlumbus miracle, as her family thought she was dead and Melody has come home. Things get progressively weirder for Morty, with everyone being extra nice, and as Rick finds out that a Blumberfarg is a teen boy who is brought home, mated with and then eaten by the family, Melody puts the moves on Morty, which her family has no problem with. It's the hilarious reaction of Morty, as he begins to piece together exactly what is happening, that's the highlight of the comic. Only the timely intervention of Rick and a new friend keeps Morty from being eaten with a nice ghost pepper sauce, and as is often the case, that safety doesn't last. The final page of the main story sees a happy ending for the lonely drunk from the bar, undercut by the fact that he'll be having nice Blumberfarg leftovers with his family. The backup sees Rick thrust into the plot of A Christmas Carol and learning absolutely nothing, which makes perfect sense if you know Rick. So Merry Blumbus to all, and all a good night,

Robin Son of Batman #6
Story: Patrick Gleason
Art: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, Tom Nguyen, & John Kalisz

Before heading back to Gotham for next month's "Robin War" crossover, Damian Wayne has one final stop on his tour to seek redemption for all the things he did during the Year of Blood, the trials he went through to prove himself a worthy al Ghul. The opening flashback shows his trip to Bialya, where he took the Scepter of Kings, and found a little red bat creature. After killing its family and not seeing any anger in the creature, we see a crack in Damian's harsh facade, and he takes the creature that will become Goliath home with him. In the present, Talia makes easy work of Bialya's current ruler and with the Scepter sets herself up as the country's new ruler. When Damian awakens from the abuse he took the previous issue, he and Talia talk, and he asks her the question readers (well at least me) have been waiting for him to ask: "Why did you kill me, mother?" Talia's answer isn't exactly satisfactory to Damian, as Talia herself is unsure since her resurrection removed the madness from her and put it into a marble that she gives to Damian, offering him the option to return it to her and slay her in revenge for his own death. But after a conversation with Nobody, the daughter of the villain that Damian killed who bore the name before her, about exactly what he's been doing, and that the R he bears now stands for redemption, a beautiful sentiment that shows exactly how far Damian has come. He isn't the child assassin he was in his first appearance, or even the brat he was at the beginning of Batman and Robin. He has earned the name Robin, has earned the Wayne name. And the final pages see him be forgiven by Nobody, who through her time with Damian no longer thinks of herself that way, reclaiming for herself her own name, Maya, and then he removes the chains that have held Goliath, freeing his loyal monster. It's fascinating to have read Damian from his first appearance and see exactly where creators have gone with the character. And as he sets off , having forgiven his mother, it's a new beginning for Damian. This first six months of his title have taken Damian away from home, so now it's time for him to head back to Gotham, and we'll see if he is ready for the city, or vice versa, next issue.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 6/17

Black Canary #1
Story: Brenden Fletcher
Art: Annie Wu

Brenden Fletcher flies solo this week with the debut of his new Black Canary series (yes, I went there with that pun). Black Canary has left Gotham and her regular super-heroing behind to tour with the band called, well Black Canary. Now know as the lead singer, DD (that's Dinah Drake), is doing her best to get her life back together, but her penchant for heroism and kicking butt is getting in the way; when you keep wrecking the club you're playing, you're not making a ton of money. We get to meet each of the members of the band: Lord Byron on drums, who seems the member working hardest to keep the band together; Paloma Terrific, who maintains an animosity to Dinah that isn't even veiled; and the mysteriously silent Ditto on guitar, a child prodigy who never speaks. After another disastrous outing, Dinah promises to not start a brawl, but when black oily demon things attack, that goes out the window. But the hook is this: they're not after Dinah, but another member of the band. It's a great set-up, and one issue in I already like the band, and there are interesting mysteries to solve. I also love connectivity in my superhero universes without it feeling like you need to read every book, and this book does a great job of tying in with Fletcher's other two books. Obviously, Black Canary and her band spin out of the first arc of the new Batgirl title, but I was pleasantly to see that the band's manager is Heathcliff from Gotham Academy. I've been impressed with how well Fletcher matches his books with the artists he's working with, and it feels like Annie Wu was made to draw this book. Her kinetic style works well with Dinah's martial arts and fighting, and the whole style feels like it fits with CD and poster art from the kind of band that plays the clubs that we're seeing. It's a great package and another win for DC in trying to do books that don't feel like they're all the same. Black Canary is vibrant, different, and exciting, with a good blend of super heroes and the life of a band on the road.

Ghostbusters: Get Real #1
Story: Erik Burnham
Art: Dan Schoening

Dan Grote wrote a piece a couple weeks ago about accepting change in our favorite properties. And I think outside comics, one of the examples or this is the upcoming female led reboot of Ghostbusters. Let's give it a shot, people! But before any of that starts up, we still have IDW releasing comics featuring the original Ghostbusters, and this time they're teaming up with the other greatest team of ghost fighters ever: The Real Ghostbusters! Yes, it's like a classic JLA/JSA crossover, where the Flashes and Green Lanterns of two worlds must meet, only better because it's the Egons of two worlds! The Greek god Proteus has decided he wants to get rid of the Real Ghostbusters before they can trap him (no comment on how the arrogant god isn't even on their radar; he's just that full of himself), but the help of a friendly witch's spell interacts with Proteus's and sends the Real team into the regular Ghostbusters world. And after interacting with the Slimer of that world, they realize something is very wrong just as the Ghostbusters show up. Firmly established as in the same continuity as the previous series and TMNT/Ghostbusters team-up mini, the Ghostbusters are familiar with alternate dimensions, and so it looks like things will work out fine, but a job comes up and Proteus is still out there, so I'm sure the boys have much more to deal with on the horizon. I've written plenty about the creative team of Erik Burnham and Dan Schoening, who have been the principle creators on two Ghostbusters ongoing, plus various minis and specials.so it goes without saying they know these characters inside and out. It's Schoening who blew me away this issue, with his ability to not only ape the style of the classic Real Ghostbusters cartoon, but to blend it seamlessly with his own style; it gives me flashbacks to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, with two worlds that shouldn't interact working perfectly side by side. Oh, and kudos to Burnham for the callback of Janine mistaking Real Egon for her ex-boyfriend Roger, who's hair and looks were based on Real Egon; it's a little nod that rewards people who have been reading all this. Real Ghostbusters is one of the best cartoons of the 80s when it comes to plot and story, and so it makes sense it would work this well when interacting in a modern setting, and teaming these versions of the characters up with their movie versions works like a charm.

Lumberjanes #15
Story: Noelle Stevenson & Shannon Watters
Art: Brooke Allen

There's a lot going on in this issue of Lumberjanes, with wolf monsters, traps, and teases of mysterious secrets and the past of camp director Rosie.  But for me, the star of the issue is Jen, the cabin councilor for our usual cast. I want to talk about our Lumberjanes and their adventures before I deep dive into what's happening with Jen. The ladies of Roanoke Cabin are loyally travelling through the woods with Barnes, their friend from the boy's camp, searching for Jen, despite encountering the mysterious blizzard and the woods' usual array of monsters. Again, I can't stress enough how important the theme of friendship is in Lumberjanes, and how these girls would sacrifice anything for each other, and that includes the often flustered and frustrated Jen. But Jo is getting jealous of Barnes and how he's getting in the middle of her friendship with April. This isn't uncommon when a new person comes into a group dynamic, but Jo is freezing out Barnes as best she can. More than that, she is beginning to wonder exactly what is going on in Lumberjanes camp, that they are neither learning survival skills nor what is going on in the woods. But while Jo is a little bothered by this, it's the crux of what's going on with Jen at the cabin of the mysterious Abigail. I might be one of few people who would say this, but Jen is probably my favorite character in the book. She's responsible, she's flustered by all the weirdness, she does her best to keep to the rules; so basically how I would act in these situations. But she's also loyal to her campers and willing to do what it takes to protect them, which makes her all the more impressive. But after being told she was abandoned, and seeing the comforts, of and the library in, Abigail's cabin, it would be easy for her to decide to not go back. But she's still loyal. They're still "her girls" and she still needs to do what she feels she needs to. And I love that. More, though, when Rosie arrives and we see the confrontation between her and Abigail, we see exactly what has been going on with Jen. She's fed up with the secrets, with Rosie not telling the Lumberjanes what is really going in. The scene where Jen and Rosie are in Abigail's trap and Jen lets loose all these feelings is one of the best character scenes in any issue of Lumberjanes. But with Lumberjanes, there's not just the personal stakes but the supernatural stakes, and it looks like whatever Abigail is up to is going to lead to some major action next issue, and as ever the book finds its balance perfectly.

Secret Six #3
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Dale Eaglesham

Oh, what a difference an artist can make. The first couple issues of the new Secret Six, as enjoyable as the story was, were marred by multiple artists that muddied the waters. But this issue sees new regular artist, and artist on the mini-series Villains United that introduced Gail Simone's original version of the six, Dale Eaglesham, and it lets me feel like I know the characters. He already has a great feel for each of these oddballs. I've been a fan of Eaglesham since he worked on chapters of "No Man's Land" back in 1999, and his art still grabs me to this day. This issue juxtaposes the complete cast of lunatics with the suburban normalcy of Big Shot's house and neighborhood, and it's a thing of beauty. These characters are all severely broken, and they just stick out like sore thumbs. I like that Catman still has this sense of honor, as shown by defending a dog, something he hates, from a human who beats it, something he hates more. It's also nice to see him being kind to Strix, showing he isn't quite the sociopath as, say, Ventriloquist, who remains this volume's Ragdoll, the character you never know what they'll say. But the moments that really got me this issue were the ones with Big Shot and Black Alice. We see a tenderness that Big Shot has for the girl, something that made me perplexed how he wound up grouped with the rest of the lunatics that comprise the Six. And as we see more of Alice's background in the new world, she grows in sympathy too. I was happy to see this, and the fact that the group binds as a team for the balance of the issue. But it's the last page that knocked me over. Because we find out Big Shot's real name, and it's a name I've been waiting for since the advent of the New 52. What he says to Black Alice earlier about the wife he lost, makes so much sense now, and tears my heart a little. But I wonder if she's gone, or if her not being there has something to do with Mockingbird, whose identity is also revealed. It's another shocking reveal, but one that makes a lot of sense, especially in relation to that characters current disposition in the DCU. I don't want to spoil the twists, but they're satisfying and going to keep me guessing until next issue.

Stumptown #6
Story: Greg Rucka
Art: Justin Greenwood

Stumptown's back! The best dang P.I. comic I've ever read returns with a new case, and a different one than we're used to seeing Dex Parios involved in. Instead of searching for missing girls or guitars, or investigating who beat her friend, this time Dex has a simple job: pick up three pounds of coffee. The fact that it's designer Kopi Lawak coffee, unique in the world, designed by a brewmaster named Patrick Weekes, and worth twenty-five large, well that's icing on the cake. Almost immediately, things take a turn for the Hammett & Chandler when Mr. Dove, a creepy guy in white, shows up with a cell phone and ten gold coins, and his boos tells Dex over the phone that he will pay her twenty thousand dollars for a sample of the coffee, half of it in these coins now, and the other half when she delivers. And even more guys trail her when she picks it up! This is some desirable coffee, and Dex still has it by issue's end. But in Stumptown, the mystery is only half the story, as Dex is a character with a rich life outside of her casework.  Still on the outs with Grey, her neighbor, Dex picks up her brother Ansel from work only to find her seemingly wayward, and previously unknown, sister, Fuji, waiting at her apartment, let in by Grey. It's clear that the two sisters have certain problems, as Fuji seems more free-spirited, and Dex is annoyed by her popping up unannounced. Greg Rucka has done an excellent job fleshing out the world around Dex, letting you understand the personal stakes as well as the professional ones, and so each new character adds another layer. While I liked Justin Greenwood's art on the last arc, this issue seems even stronger, looking really clean and crisp, with some great character work on Dex as she's confronted with these new mysteries and hurdles. I'm sure things won't go as smoothly for Dex next issue as they did in this one because things never stay quiet for her for long, and it wouldn't be interesting if they did.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 11/26

Arkham Manor #2
Story: Gerry Duggan
Art: Shawn Crystal

I didn't review the first issue of Arkham Manor, not because I didn't like it, but because it didn't jump off the page at me. It felt like a lot of Batman in a book I was hoping would be something different than that. But the second issue, while Batman is still a major part of it, jumped right at me. I feel like this books is finding its feet. The scene that I absolutely loved, the one that showed me all the potential this book could have, was a group therapy session headed by Jeremiah Arkham. Other than "Jack Shaw," Batman's secret identity as a new inmate he is using to investigate murders in Arkham, we see Seth Wickham, a new inmate whose origin we get at the beginning of the issue, Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze, who has to live in a walk in freezer until his cell is completed, so he appears via what reminded me of a monitor on a segue robot. Not only is the scene great, with some nice character bits from both the villains and Dr. Arkham, but the minute it's clear "Shaw: is hiding something, everyone starts accusing him of being Joker in disguise. This reinforces to me the fact that Joker is the boogeyman to even the boogeymen. Since this takes place before "Endgame" we also get to see Eric Border, who if you're reading Batman you know what his story is, and that adds an air of menace, of wondering exactly what he might have been up to before the big reveal. The fact that Zsasz is the villain who has escaped and who Batman suspects of the murders feels like a great parallel to Zsasz's first appearance in "The Last Arkham," a story where Arkham has been redesigned and Zsasz is escaping to commit murders. Since the parallel is so clear, I have a feeling Zsasz is a red herring, but if he isn't I'm still excited to see Gerry Duggan write one of my favorite Bat-foes. Shawn Crystal's art has a feel that suits this comic perfectly, with dark lines and heavy shadows, adding to the feeling of foreboding that permeates Arkham. There was also a brief scene that ties very closely to events in Gotham Academy, one of the other new Bat books, which answered one of the mysteries of that series without giving too much context, so it doesn't spoil anything heavily for that book and if you're not reading Academy, could seem like set-up for future plots in Arkham Manor. Since The New 52, it feels like the Bat books all exist in their own corners, with very little tie-ins between them, so I was happy to see some connectivity in the world. There's a really solid ending, a nice mystery set up, and it's an exciting final few pages. This issue really makes me look forward to my next visit to Arkham Manor.

Batman Beyond Universe #16
Story: Alex Siegel & Kyle Higgins
Art: Thony Silas

The end of Batman Beyond Universe snuck up on me. For the foreseeable future, this is the last comic taking place in the world created so many years ago by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and their collaborators on Batman: The Animated Series, and I feel attention must be paid. It's a great send off to Terry McGinnis, tying up a lot of the threads that the series has been playing out over this new volume. While there's a battle with Rewire, the new villain introduced at the beginning of this series, and it's a really well thought out one, with some very logical superheroics and tech to finally defeat him, this issue grabbed me because of the themes of family it explored. Since Terry learned that his father was alive in an alternate timeline, he has been spending more time there, connecting with the father he lost who he never appreciated in life. But this issue gives Terry the choice about whether he should spend his time there, or with the family he has built in his own world, the one comprised of Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, and Barbara Gordon. Siegel and Higgins show Terry's struggle, and also give a very human moment or two to Bruce. The Beyond-era Bruce is at times even more closed off than his contemporary counterpart, but over the course of the animated series, had moments of warmth and openness, like visiting Tim Drake at the end of Return of the Joker, or making Terry soup at the end of the Justice League Unlimited episode, "Epilogue." It was nice to see Bruce reacting to the possibility of losing Dick. Another key scene was Terry confronting Ghoul, the member of the Jokerz street gang who has been a nemesis of Terry's through the recent comics. Terry gives a short speech about breaking the cycle of Batman and Joker to Ghoul, and that moment of self awareness is a strong sign of how much Terry has grown over the course of this series. And that's it. The series has wrapped, and while a version of Terry is playing a part in New 52: Futures End, this is the last we will see of the original version of that character for a while at least. It's been nice to revisit the character and his world in comics after the end of the animated series, and I think I might just have to go back and watch some of my favorite episodes of the cartoon now, to really see how far Terry has come.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters #2
Story: Erik Burnham & Tom Waltz
Art: Dan Schoening

Crossovers are a tricky thing, especially when you're crossing over two well known and well regarded properties. You can sometimes make one property too much of a focus, or it can feel like one is being used to show how much cooler the other is at the expense of the first property. None of that is happening in the TMNT/Ghostbusters mini-series. The first issue spent a lot of time revealing the current status quo of the Turtles, since it is a little less familiar than the one the Ghostbusters have, but now that all the preliminaries are out of the way, this issue throws the two sets of characters together and plays them off each other. The plot is forwarded, as the evil god Chi You continues to build his army and walk around with Turtles ally Casey Jones as his puppet, the scene I loved was where the Turtles go to the firehouse and we see a pairing off of the two casts. Egon and Donatello argue about the science and the existence of ghosts, Peter and Raphael make sarcastic comments, Ray and Michelangelo get a nice comedic scene, Winston and Leonardo comment on being the steady ones in groups whose members are, let's say, easily distracted, and Janine and April just sort of take in the chaos. Since the two writers responsible for the mini-series have long standing histories with these characters, it should come as no surprise that they all sound exactly as you'd expect, but it didn't occur to me how well the two teams would blend, and how many parallels there are. This issue sets the stakes for the remaining two, now that we know exactly how long the Turtles have to get back to their world and what it will take. This is everything you'd ask for in a crossover, and I can just picture ten year old me being completely blown away by it. Thirty-four year old me is pretty blown away as it is.

Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good: A Survey of the Ghostbusters in Comics in Honor of Harold Ramis

This past Monday, Hollywood lost one of its great comedic minds. Harold Ramis was an actor and director who appeared in, or was responsible for, many great comedies, including Groundhog Day, Meatballs, and Stripes. But for many like me, his greatest role would be in Ghostbusters, the 1984 classic about a group of scientists and their friends and allies fighting all manner of spook, spectre, and thing that goes bump in the night, where he plays Dr. Egon Spengler, my favorite of the Ghostbusters. It is one of my favorite movies of all time, one of those movies that every time you see it on you have to stop and watch,  and has spawned toys, video games, multiple animated series, and more than a few comics over the years. Today, instead of my standard recommended reading, we're going to look back on the history of The Ghostbusters in comics (apparently, there was a long running Marvel UK series, but the majority hasn't been reprinted here in the States, so I'll not be addressing that here).

Just on the outside chance you have never seen Ghostbusters and are unfamiliar with the characters and concept, the Ghostbusters started out as three professors and paranormal investigators who, after being thrown out of academia, start a business to trap and contain various ghosts. Peter Venkman is the mouth of the Ghostbusters, the public face, always with a smart comment, played by Bill Murray. Egon Spengler, played by Ramis, is a scientist and paranormal researcher, a big brain with not a lot of social graces. Ray Stantz, played by Dan Aykroyd, is also a scientist, responsible with Egon for making the Ghostbusters proton packs, PKE Meters, and various other ghost fighting tech, and is the heart of the team. Winston Zeddemore, played by Ernie Hudson, is the fourth man on the team; he is not a scientist, hired when the business picks up, but smart and full of common sense, something that Egon and Ray are often lacking, and Peter just doesn't care about. Along with Janine Melnitz, their trusty receptionist, and Slimer, a ghost they keep around for testing and who is a sort of mascot, they make up the Ghostbusters.

The Real Ghostbusters (NOW Comics)

The Real Ghostbusters was the animated series based on the film. Many a great voice actor appeared on the show, notably Lorenzo Music,best known as the voice of Garfield, as Peter Venkman, Frank Welker, best known as Megatron from Transformers and Fred from Scooby Doo, Arsenion Hall as Winston, and Maurice LaMarche, best known as The Brain from Pinky and the Brain and numerous characters on Futurama, as Egon. The show was very smart for its time, with some episodes written by the likes of J. Michael Straczynski, J.M. Dematteis, and Michael Reaves, and despite the animation not being as strong as modern cartoons, the stories hold up extremely well, incorporating all manner of world mythologies, as well as the Cthulu Mythos. With a successful cartoon, it was only a matter of time before the license was sold to comics. NOW Comics was a publisher in the late 80s and early 90s that focused mostly on licensed properties. The comic series did a good job of staying in the flavor of the animated series, with the same sort of tongue and cheek sense of humor and intelligent stories. Many of the comic stories were tied together by common antagonists; a personal favorite of mine was Nurtog, a freakin' ghost T-Rex. Let's be fair, aside from The Dresden Files, where else are you gonna find an undead T-Rex? NOW also published a three part mini-series adaptation of the film sequel, Ghostbusters II, done in the style of The Real Ghostbusters, which is a fun little oddity. With the exception of that adaptation and a couple annuals, this series was recently reprinted by IDW Publishing in two omnibus volumes.

Ghostbusters: Legion (88MPH Studios)

After a drought of many years with no real new Ghostbusters content, fledgling comics company 88MPH Studios picked up the license and presented a four issue mini-series called Legion. Set firmly in the continuity of the movies (although resetting the movies in early 2004 instead of the '84), Legion, set six months after the events of the movie, has the Ghostbusters dealing with a new outbreak of paranormal activity that they track back to Michael Draverhaven, a friend of Ray's who studied with Egon, Peter, and he in college, and who was caught in an accident that linked him to the spirit world and to a sort of hive ghost called Legion. It's a pretty intense story, very creepy, and has an emotional core of Ray dealing with what happened to his friend. 88 MPH was supposed to follow this mini-series up with an ongoing, but the company folded before it could. The series was collected in trade paperback, although that is long since out of print.

Ghost Busted (Tokyopop)

Ok, this is the one book discussed here that I haven't read, and simply discovered through research for this piece. It's a manga size/style book published by Tokyopop in 2008. It's an anthology of connected short stories, and it's something I'm going to have to track down for the completist in me, something none of my fellow comic book fans know nothing about, I'm sure...

The Other Side (IDW Publishing)

The same year Tokyopop released their one Ghostbusters related comic, IDW Publishing started releasing comics in what is by far the most successful run of Ghostbusters comics to date. The first mini-series published was The Other Side. The Ghostbusters run afoul of the ghosts of some of America's most famous gangsters, including Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel, who are running a pipeline to get spirits out of the afterlife, and wind up being displaced from their bodies and sent to the afterlife themselves. The Ghostbusters are on the run from beings on the other side who are after them because of them being, well, ghostbusters, but find a little help from some of America's greatest gangbusters; if you're a fan of gangster movies and true crime, you'll get a kick out of seeing so many legendary G-Men and Mafiosi tossed into one ghostly caper.

Displaced Aggression (IDW Publsihing)

Displaced Aggression is a story that, while using the classic Ghostbusters designs, hearkens back to some of the fun and over the top storytelling of The Real Ghostbusters. Written by Scott Lobdell, whose run on Uncanny X-Men you you might have read about here recently, the series splits the Ghostbusters up and sends them on an journey through time, with each one in a different era: Peter is in the Old West, Ray is in medieval times, Egon in the distant future, while Winston is in the present, fighting the good fight against Koza'Rai, the father of Gozer, the Sumerian god the Ghostbusters defeated in the first movie. This story is very much a comic book story, with big action scenes and crazy designs that you couldn't pull off on the budget of most movies.

The Miscellaneous IDW Ghostbusters

Before getting into the discussion of the main IDW ongoing Ghostbusters series, I just wanted to touch on some of the one shots and crossovers IDW has done for Ghostbusters. Aside from Halloween, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and Comic Con specials, the Ghostbusters have taken part in three of IDW's intercompany crossovers, throwing different franchises together. In Infestation, the Ghostbusters must fight an interdimensional zombie outbreak in a story that ties in to IDW's own Covert Vampiric Operations, or CVO, comics franchise. The Real Ghostbusters had to deal with Martian Ghosts in Mars Attacks The Real Ghostbusters. And just last month, the Ghostbusters met The Lone Gunmen of X-Files fame, finding there was something even the Lone Gunmen have a hard time believing, in X-Files: Conspiracy- Ghostbusters. None of these are essential reading (although Infestation does have some threads that play out in the ongoing I'm about to talk about), but part of the great fun  of comics are crossovers between characters you never thought would meet, and these definitely fall under that category, because lets be frank, whoever thought they'd see Frohike of the Lone Gunmen hit on Janine?

Ghostbusters Ongoing (IDW Publishing)

After two successful mini-series and some one shots, IDW decided to give the Ghostbusters their own ongoing. Two volumes in, the series is going incredibly strong. The series has been written by Erik Burnham and drawn, with only a couple of guest pencils, by Dan Schoening, along with other writers and artists doing back-up stories.

The series is set in continuity with the movies, set after the events of Ghostbusters II, with the Ghostbusters comfortably doing their ghostbusting with the unfortunate government oversite of their old nemesis, Walter Peck, now head of the Paranormal Contracts Oversight Commission, or PCOC for short. The use of Peck shows one of the huge strengths of Burnham's writing; he is clearly a huge fan of all versions of the Ghostbusters, and draws in characters and aspects from all of them. Along with the main cast and movie characters like Peck, Kylie Griffin of the spinoff Extreme Ghostbusters series shows up working in Ray's paranormal bookstore, The Rookie and Ilyssa Selwyn from the recent Ghostbusters video game both pop up, and Burnham takes characters from earlier comics, keeping Tiyah Clarke, a love interest introduced for Winston in the "Tainted Love" Valentine's Day one-shot, and deepens their characters. He has also created some new characters, including Ron Alexander, a sleazy scientist who is  Peter Venkman if he didn't have Ray and Egon to keep him on the straight and narrow and who has been forced to work with the Ghostbusters, and Melanie Ortiz, an FBI Agent who serves as the Bureau liaison with the Ghostbusters. Expanding the cast has allowed different aspects of the Ghostbusters to show that you wouldn't see when they're just interacting with each other, like Winston's romantic side with Tiyah or Ray's paternal streak when it comes to Kylie.

With Burnham having been working on the series now for nearly thirty issues, he has been able to really get a great feeling for the characters. Reading the stories, you can hear the dialogue in the voices of the actors who portrayed them on the big screen. The series is funny, having the same sense of humor as the films. It also maintains the stakes; while the comic can be fun and the characters get off plenty of zingers, the ghosts they encounter have an air of menace that could be lost if the writer decided to play the setting more for laughs.

Over the course of the two volumes of the Ghostbusters ongoing (the first one ran sixteen issues, the second is currently on issue thirteen), Burnham has set plenty of challenges before the Ghostbusters. The stories have included adventures that took them on a cross country good will trip to bust ghost in various cities, or dealing with the Ghost-Smashers, a team of second rate Ghostbuster knock offs with tech even more unpredictable than the Ghostbusters own. The first arc of the second series had the Ghostbusters trapped in another dimension; Janine had to fill in along with some of the supporting cast that had been built over the first series, allowing those characters time to shine. Egon had to travel into Janine's mind to save her from ghostly possession by one of her ancestors while the others were on a ghostly pirate ship. And the most recent arc took the team through the holiday season, as bogeyman activity in New York grew. The most recent issue, which was released just this past Wednesday, begins, "Mass Hysteria," an eight part story written to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise, which will not only bring everything that Burnham has been plotting to a head, but reintroduce Dana Barrett and Louis Tully, two important characters from the films, into the comics.

Dan Schoening's style is perfectly suited to this comic. His characters are expressive, a bit quirky, and every page just exudes energy. His designs for the ghosts are genuinely creepy, with many truly terrifying scenes. Schoening is clearly also a fan of all eras of Ghostbusters, evinced by his design for Janine's new boyfriend, who resembles the animated Egon, down to his massive blond pompadour haircut. His art has just the right balance between comedy and horror to work on a property that treads that line so well.

IDW has been collecting the Ghostbusters comics in trade, so they should be easy to track down, with each mini-series in its own trade, as well as all of the holiday themed one shots, along with a new story, collected in a volume called Haunted Holidays; theer is also an omnibus edition collecting all those stories. The ongoings has been collected  in six trades, with a seventh on the way. However, all sixteen issues of the first volume are about to be released in a deluxe hardcover called "The Total Containment Edition."

And that's the comics history of Ghostbusters, one of the greatest pop culture franchises of all time. Harold Ramis was a great director, actor, and writer, whose work has touched legions. This final piece of art is from Ghostbusters artist Dan Schoening's DeviantArt page, and is one of the best tributes I've seen to Ramis. May he live the same day over and over again in the next life, and may it be the best day ever.