Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 11/18

Bizzaro #6
Story: Heath Corson
Art: Gustavo Duarte  & Pete Pantazis with guest page from Tim Sale & Dave Stewart

Bizarro and Jimmy Olsen's road trip ends with quite a bang, an issue full of guest stars, guest artists, and some really heartfelt moments. After last issue when Bizarro found out Jimmy was travelling with him to produce a photo book of the trip, Superman's imperfect clone left Jimmy in the Nevada desert and headed back to Metropolis. While Jimmy is quickly captured by Queen Tut, the nemesis he and Bizarro made back in issue one, seeking revenge for Bizarro hypnotizing her dad, King Tut (the pharaoh of used car sales), into thinking he's a chicken, Bizarro meets Superman. This is the first meeting between Bizarro and Superman in the new continuity of the post-Flashpoint DC Universe, an d it's a very different meeting than you'd expect. No blows are exchanged, and Bizarro simply gets to talk to Superman, the conversation starting with a beautiful splash page by Time Sale in his Superman for All Seasons mode. The Superman who appears here feels like the wiser, more worldly and friendly Superman of the pre-Flashpoint world (there's even a joke about the missing red trunks), and his conversation with Bizarro about friendship and Bizarro listens and understands, heading out to save Jimmy when Queen Tut threatens Jimmy on national TV. During the battle, all the friends Bizarro has made, from bounty hunter Chastity Hex, to Kilowog, to Zatannam to a pair of FBI agents that look suspiciously familiar if you followed a certain '90s TV show about the paranormal, come in to lend a hand, even Colin the alien chupacabra, who returns from space. It's a big, silly, exciting action comic, and ends with Bizarro and Jimmy reconciling, working on the book together, and arriving at Canada to the nicest bum's rush you've ever seen (they're Canadian after all). With the adventure over, the pair return to Metropolis and whatever adventures might remain in the future. Bizarro was one of the best mini-series that came out of the most recent DC wave of titles; it was fine, all ages fair, and I hope that we get another adventure from Bizarro and Jimmy soon. By the way, I considered writing most of this revue in Bizarro speech, but after two sentences, I wanted to smack myself, so I could only imagine how you would have felt. You're welcome.

Harley Quinn #22
Story: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Chad Hardin & Alex Sinclair

Harley Quinn is one of those books that is so consistently good that it sometimes falls off my review radar because it's hard to find something new to say. But this week's new issue is such a perfect example of everything that's great about this book, it's a good time to call it out. After an adventure in Hollywood, Harley is returning home with a bunch of new acquisitions, courtesy of Deadshot's stolen credit cards, only to find plenty of problems waiting. Zena Bendemova, Russian femme fatale and nemesis of Sy Borgman, the geriatric cyborg who lives in the retirement home that Harley works at in her day job, has been resurrected by her grandson, and she has sworn revenge against Harley and Sy. Plus, Harley's current boyfriend, Mason, is in jail for manslaughter and has a hit out on him in jail. These are the kind of things Harley has to deal with on a day to day basis. After being attacked by some of Zena's amazonian warriors (amazonian with a small a; they're big and tough and female, not from Paradise Island) in a fight scene that is equal parts funny and brutal, Harley gets home to find out about Mason and the fact that Zena, or since Harley doesn't know she's back from the dead someone who is working out Zena's vendetta, has kidnapped Sy, Harley has to divide and conquer. She splits up her Gang of Harleys, taking some to save Mason and leaving the others to track down Sy. That's a lot to happen on one issue to begin with, and its interspersed with Harley getting some revenge on rude construction workers,  a scene of Mason narrowly averting being murdered, and Harley having a sweet talk with a nice man she met on the plane back from L.A. Writers Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti have created a wide and diverse cast for Harley, from her gang of Harleys to the tenants of her building and the people at her nursing home, and we get to see a little bit of everyone in this issue, which never feels overwrought or busy. It's a great comic, and if you're reading a title like Deadpool and haven't tried Harley Quinn, you should really jump on now.

Orphan Black: Helsinki #1
Story: John Fawcett, Graeme Manson, Heli Kennedy, & Dennis Tipton
Art: Alan Quah, Jeffrey Huet, & Chris Fenoglio

IDW's first mini-series based on the best sci-fi show (and a contender for best show period) on TV right now, Orphan Black, filled in little details about the backgrounds of our principal clone cast. This new series tells the story of events hinted at in the most recent season of the show, the wiping out of a group of clones in Helsinki. It's a completely different cast from the show, so all bets are off on who will and won't survive, and since the story comes from the show's creators, this is official canon. Our principal clone this series is Veera Suominen, a teenage clone with burn scars in her face we met briefly at the end of last series. When Veera finds the uncle she has been living with had spying devices in her room and the name of two other girls on his computer, she runs away to find the nearest of those girls and expose her uncle's child pornography operation. Of course, readers know he's really monitoring them for the cloning project, but Veera doesn;t know that, and so she heads to find Niki Lintula, who lives nearby. To do this, the socially isolated Veera, a girl who's scars make her stand out and who has been home schooled to keep her away from other children, infiltrates Niki's scool. It's heartbreaking to see Veera try to interact with other kids and freezes up when doing it, and to see what happens when she sees Niki, who is a flawless, blonde version of herself. The issue doesn't have a lot of the science fiction and action that are a part of Orphan Black, but it succeeds in being a strong study of a character, really getting into Veera's head in a way that TV can't, with a story narrated exclusively by her. It also succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of Orphan Black, with a sense of disconnection and paranoia as a clone begins to understand so much of what she believes about the world isn't right, multiplied in this case tenfold by Veera's isolation. It's a strong start to the series, one that looks to add an important chapter to the overall mythos of Orphan Black.

Star Wars #12
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, Justin Ponsor

Back when he was writing The Authority, Warren Ellis talked about widescreen storytelling in comics. He was talking not just about page layouts with big panels and lots of action, but a certain way stories should be told, with those same sensibilities in mind. If there is any comic that should have that kind of thinking, it's Star Wars, the movie franchise that defined modern widescreen movies. The last part of the second arc of Marvel's new Star Wars series is a widescreen story, packed to the gills with action and adventure. We get a small battle between Han, Leia, Chewie, and the bounty hunter Dengar, followed by a huge battle in Grakkus the Hutt's arena with monsters and stromtroopers that ends with a visually stunning moment or two that I don't want to give away. I know some purists will be bothered by that moment, but it's one of those things that I have to get past my inner fanboy and embrace my inner child, what it would have looked like if I was a kid see certain characters doing something that you never saw them do in the movies that is just plain awesome. I want to see more of Grakkus, a Hutt who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty, and Sgt. Kreel, the stormtrooper undercover in Grakkus's operation. But mixed in with all the action, we get some nice character moments for Princess Leia and Sana, the woman claiming to be Han Solo's wife, so the issue isn't a wall-to-wall actionfest. Add in a last page cameo from Darth Vader, and you get a comic that any casual Star Wars fan would love, and one that does some nice things for us diehards. This week also saw the release of the one-shot that kicks off the first Marvel Star Wars crossover, "Vader Down," which is also an excellent comic and a great jumping on point if you want to try out some Star Wars comics before The Force Awakens.

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #1
Story: Robert Venditti
Art: Raul Allen & Patricia Martin

When we last saw Gilad Anni-Padda, the Eternal Warrior, at the end of Valiant's Book of Death event mini-series, he was, well, dead. This issue shows readers what happens when Gilad dies, but before he returns from the dead, and after seeing the fields of the Deadside filled with monsters,we see where he awakens, and it is not what you might expect. Gilad arrives in a heaven of his own making, with his wife and children waiting for him and excited to see him. But they all know that it's only temporary. Leena, Gila's wife, is especially saddened by the fact she knows Gilad will be leaving them again sooner than they'd like. The issue is mostly an idyllic domestic scene, with Gilad playing with his children, eating a fine dinner, and lying with his wife. I'm curious to known a little more about Gilad's heaven, as the children clearly have different mothers, and I wonder if these are all the children Gilad has fathered in his six thousand years of life; also I am curious to see what more wwe will learn of Kalam, Gilad's eldest child in this realm, who spends his days stubbornly shooting arrows into targets Robin Hood style, splitting arrow after arrow. Is he . Gilad is so often portrayed as this unstoppable, resolute force, the fist and steel of the Earth, that it makes for  very different scene to see him not only with his family in a place where he doesn't need to fight, but more to see how tired he seems as he tell's Leena of his most recent "trip." And to think that Gilad and his family views this afterlife as his true home and the world of the living as the place he goes on business trips makes it even sadder than Gilad knows that he must return. And as the issue ends and he hears the voices of the monsters that exist in the Deadside waiting for him to begin his trip back, we know that it isn't a simple thing for him to just will himself back to life. Robert Venditti's script is excellent, but Raul Allen's art takes it to a whole other level. He draws both the agrarian beauty of Gilad's farm haven and the nightmare of the blasted Deadside with equal adeptness, and his Gilad in particular is expressive; you can see in his eyes all six thousand years he has lived. Eternal Warrior was my favorite character from classic Valiant, and I've enjoyed his other series and his appearances in other titles, but the first issue of Wrath of the Eternal Warrior feels like the beginning of the series that this character deserves, a blend of magic, history, and character. If you've never read a Valiant title before, this is the time to start.

And because we know you can't get enough, Dan Grote reviews this week's new Deadpool...

Deadpool #2

Story:  Gerry Duggan

Art: Mike Hawthorne, Terry Pallot, & Val Staples

Something is rotten in Deadmark. More on that later.

The first issue of the all-new, all-different adventures of Wade Wilson & Co. set up all the players on the board, both new and old, but this issue focuses largely on Deadpool’s new team of mercenaries, who have grown tired of running pro bono missions and generally doing more good works than good-paying ones, “like we’re Santas that bring justice,” per Terror.

To teach them a lesson, DP sends them on a paying gig in which a landlord aims to evict to the decent, hard-working tenants in his building so he can turn the units into condos. Suddenly, some of the mercs develop a conscience, and we see what they do with their ill-gotten gains.

While they all begrudgingly wear the same costumes and are obsessed with getting paid, the creative team is doing a good job of making each member of Deadpool’s Heroes for Hire a distinct personality. Slapstick, who should be another irritating source of comic relief, a la Deadpool or Madcap, is completely miserable but still looks like someone sprayed silly string all over the Joker’s head and then drew him into an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Madcap is obsessed with hats and speaks in his now-trademark Courier New balloons, while all the other Deadpools speak in Wade’s classic yellow balloons when the masks are on. Solo is the handsome one in the James Bond/Jason Bourne vein and among the earliest to develop a conscience, with Stingray, the former Avenger and lone Deadpool capable of flight, not far behind. Foolkiller is the most hardened of the lot, still money uber alles in the face of everything. Terror, the human organ harvester, appears to be the same way, then gives his cut of the inappropriate-eviction gig to the wife and son of an abusive man whom he proceeds to beat the living crap out of.

Issue’s end returns us to Deadpool HQ, where we sadly are forced to say goodbye to a member of Wade’s now-former family. I won’t say who, but I will say that someone is pretending to be the real Deadpool, the one in the black-and-red suit with the hood whose fashion sense I so highly praised last time around (seriously, get on the POP variant, Funko). Who the impostor is is not revealed, but it does have something to do with the truth about who killed Deadpool’s parents.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go pour some sizzurp on the concrete for [redacted].

Reviews of Comics for Wednesday 6/3

Airboy #1
Story: James Robinson
Art: Greg Hinkle

Meta-textual commentary has been a part of comics since Stan Lee wrote the Marvel Bullpen into Fantastic Four. Grant Morrison wrote himself into Animal Man, Warren Ellis popped up in Powers, and Brian Michael Bendis recently appeared in Nailbiter, to name a few. But James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's new series using the public domain flying ace Airboy, does something a little different, and absolutely fascinating: it pulls the hero into the real world, instead of inserting the creator into the comic book world. But we don't even get much of that this issue. No, this issue is the story of a writer in a tailspin. James Robinson has been offered the chance to write Airboy by Image Comics, and he's agreed to do it despite himself. He's unhappy with his work at DC (which he talks about frankly in the dialogue), and he's sick of being "the golden age guy" but he takes the offer, despite having no ideas. When he can't get anymore ideas, he gets his artist, Greg Hinkle, to fly to San Francisco, where Robinson lives, to try to get the juices flowing. What follows is not a night of comic creating, but one of alcohol, cocaine, and anonymous sex. It's only by issue's end that Airboy pops up, and only on the last page. Robinson doesn't pull any punches in how he portrays himself; he's a drunk, he's snorting cocaine at every chance, he's cheating on his wife, and he is wallowing in self-pity. From interviews, the general plot is semi-autobiographical, and it's interesting to see a writer most associated with superhero comics writing something so straightforwardly inner facing. I've been a fan of Robinson's since he wrote a couple phenomenal arcs of Batman: Legends the Dark Knight, and this is a very different Robinson. Greg Hinkle's art style is different and interesting (something talked about in the comic, actually), and works well with the material. The muted color palette also works with Robinson's mindset, and the flash of color when Airboy appears is an excellent visual trope.  Just to warn some of you more sensitive readers, there is some sexual material in the issue (although nothing hardcore), and some full frontal male nudity, but it's nothing worse than what you see on cable. This is a comic that takes the fourth wall and pretty much smashes it to pieces, so if that, along with stories about writing, creation, and self examination catch your interest, Airboy is something you want to check out.

Batman Beyond #1
Story: Dan Jurgens
Art: Bernard Chang

Since the reboot DC Comicsa post-Flashpoint, I've been hoping to see Tim Drake get his own series again. I started reading comic within a couple months of Tim's first appearance, and he has been my favorite Robin, and probably my favorite DC Conics's character aside from Batman himself. And while he's been in Teen Titans from the outset, I wanted a book that was all about Tim. And this past week, I got my monkey paw wish in the new Batman Beyond series spinning out of The New 52: Futures End, where a Tim Drake from five years in the future has been thrust thirty more years into the future. Yes, that's a pretty complicated, timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly set up, but you don't really need to know it. What you need to know is Tim is a stranger in a strange land, on an Earth where Gotham is the last bastion standing against the reign of Brother Eye, an evil cybernetic being. This first issue establishes the status quo that Tim walks into, a mixture of what we'd expect from the current continuity and the classic animated Batman Beyond timeline. We see Terry McGinnis's little brother, Matt, who thinks he should have been made Batman when his brother died (Terry died pulling a Kyle Reese, going back to stop Brother Eye, and died in the process), and a gang of Jokerz. We meet a new character, Nora Boxer, a former Global Peace Agency agent who is Matt's guardian. And we get to see what the world outside of Gotham is like, as Tim goes to free Maxine Gibson, Terry's best friend, from a Brother Eye prison camp and runs afoul of a superhero converted into a Brother Eye drone. Who that is, I want to leave as a surprise, as well as the last page reveal of the other hero who is imprisoned in the camp. It's a lot to take in for a first issue, especially if you didn't read Futures End, but the banter between Tim and ALFRED, the Bat suit A.I. is fun, the action scenes are beautifully drawn by Bernard Chang, and it's an interesting set-up. While this isn't the Batman Beyond of old, it's an interesting take on the world, and one that has potential to honor those old stories while beating it's own path.

Bizarro #1
Story: Heath Corson
Art: Gustavo Duarte

All ages comics have been severely lacking in DC Comics main line since the reboot. This first week of the new line sees the debut of not one but two series. And while Bat-Mite is a fun book, it was Bizarro that totally knocked my socks off. Writer Heath Corson has been the screenwriter of many of the recent DC direct-to-DVD movies, but this is his first comic, and it's a strong showing. There's no continuity knowledge needed, just a basic understanding that Bizarro is Superman's awkward opposite number and Jimmy Olsen is Superman's pal. The comic itself is the first leg of a road trip that Jimmy and Bizarro are on together. You don't need to know why, they just are, and craziness ensues. After smashing up his car, thanks to an attack by Bizarro's pet chupacbra, Colin, Jimmy and Bizarro wind up in a tiny town. There, to get his car fixed, Jimmy meets Regis "King Tut" Tuttle, the Pharaoh of Used Cars, and his lovely daughter, Regina. Of course, King Tut winds up being empowered by Ancient Egyptian gods (sort of, anyway), and uses his new powers to exert his will on the town, and so it's Bizarro to the rescue. Bizarro is the lovable oaf here, similar to how he was presented in Superman: The Animated Series, and his backwards talk and misunderstanding of the way people interact makes for much of the humor. Jimmy is presented as put upon and completely frustrated by how to deal with Bizarro's antics, and the fact that Colin seems to want to eat him. It's a classic odd couple dynamic, only with one of the two being a chalky clone of a superhero, and it's hilarious. I'm looking forward to seeing what other kinds of trouble Bizarro can get into.

Nailbiter #13
Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Mike Henderson

A little over a year into Nailbiter, this issue begins to give us details on the backstory of two of our leads, titular serial killer Edward Charles Warren and his ex-girlfriend, Sheriff Shannon Crane. A series of flashbacks show Warren as an odd, sort of creepy kid, not the bold and strutting killer he is today, and Sheriff Crane has softer edges then she does in the present; I somehow think being known as the ex of one of Buckaroo's serial killers has hardened her considerably. Still the chemistry between the two of them is great, and despite knowing their fates, I found myself sort of rooting for them. But in the present, there isn't any romance bubbling between the two. Instead, Crane, Warren, and our other lead Nicholas Finch, have to make it past a group of robe wearing townsfolk led by Reverend Fairgold, who are swearing to follow Warren around to make sure he never kills again. It's one of those darkly funny scenes this book does really well, as Warren confronts the mob, and we see exactly how ready they are to stand up against the Nailbiter. Once that's done, we reenter the tunnels beneath Buckaroo, where Warren has promised to show the origins of the Buckaroo Butchers. This is where the book shifts from darkly funny to just plain creepy, which is another thing this comic does well. Darkness, weird statuary and wall paintings, it all helps further the atmosphere of darkness that permeates Buckaroo. I don't think anyone is surprised that Warren slips away, and the issue ends with him confronting the reverend again, this time in the hospital room of Agent Carroll, the man who brought Finch to Buckaroo and set off the chain of events we're witnessing. Like any good horror story, the last page knocks your socks off with how disturbing it is, and I don't want to say any more to possibly spoil the surprise. Nailbiter continues to be one of the best mixes of horror, character, and comedy produced right now, and inheritor of the legacies of Hannibal Lecter books and Tales from the Crypt. Each issue brings us deeper into the mystery of Buckaroo, and every step only makes me more nervous for the characters. I just do my best not to start biting my nails...

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #6
Story: Ryan North
Art: Erica Henderson

While most of the Marvel Universe is being swept up in Secret Wars, the hilarious all-ages Unbeatable Squirrel Girl starts it's second arc with the introduction of not one, but two new heroes, as well as a new villain, and a new... something. The charm of Squirrel Girl's comic is just how real the characters are written. Despite being so cheery and chipper, Squirrel Girl feels real, as does her roommate, Nancy. And as they spend time outside the bank that Squirrel Girl needs to guard, we meet Hippo the Hippo. He's a Hippo who has been mutated into a man-hippo, sort of like High Evolutionary's Knights, only without the motivation, armor, or highfalutin speech patterns. When SG starts fighting him, she is quickly aided by two new heroes, Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boi. After some brief fisticuffs, SG is able to stop the fight be once again reasoning with the bad guy. I love that, over the course of six issues, nearly every major confrontation in this series has been solved by words, not by violence. It's both charming and sets a good precedent; Hippo isn't a bad man-hippo, he's just not sure what to do now that he's self-aware.  With the battle done, Nancy quickly calls out one of the great tropes of superhero comics, immediately identifying both the new heroes as fellow students Tomas Lara-Perez and Ken Shiga, since all they're doing is wearing domino masks. After a becoming friends montage (something the little caption narrator guy at the bottom of the pages really likes, and I do too), SG takes Nancy to the zoo to see if she can talk to any animal, since it seems everyone else can. There, though, the encounter Girl Squirrel, a superpowered squirrel. But all is not what it seems, and the final scenes, which pretty much scare the narrator of the comic away, shows that the relationship between Squirrel Girl and Girl Squirrel is not going to be the sunny one that would seem logical. The stakes are high in those final pages, the highest in the title so far. Sure, Galactus might have eaten Earth, but this is a more serious threat. Some people might think serious threats aren't something for an all ages comic, but I think we underestimate kids if we don't let them think about things. So if you're a Marvel person trying to avoid Secret Wars, now's the time to try out The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl; it's a classic Marvel comic with character and heart.