Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 12/17

Batman '66 #30
Story: Lee Allred
Art: Mike Allred & Laura Allred

All good things must come to an end, alas, and this week marks the final issue of the regular Batman '66 title. But its a phenomenal way to go out. This issue, written by Lee Allred with art by his brother and sister-in-law Mike and Laura Allred, is everything you'd expect from the wonderful oddness attached to the Allred name, as the story finds a way to put all those random funky images from the opening credits from the TV show and works them into a story. The basic plot is simple: Joker, Penguin, and Catwoman have set up a convention for all of Gotham's villains. All except Riddler, who they're just sick of because he "might as well be working with Batman" giving away their crimes. So, of course, Riddler decides to send clues to the police about the location out of spite, so this might not have been the best villainous plan. Arriving at the movie studio where the convention is taking place, Batman and Robin work their way through a gauntlet of villains, with the different images from the credits representing the defeat of the villains. The Batmobile gets a remote controlled spotlight moment, and Batgirl sweeps in for a last minute save. Pretty much every villain from the series, and most of the new ones introduced in the comic, pop up in the villainous crowd scenes, and some make their first appearance, like King Cobra (who's in the opening credits but never in the show or this comic before) and (despite being unmasked the whole time), the Terrible Trio, If that weren't enough cameos, as Batman and Robin climbing the studio, they find a legitimate meeting going on, and out of the window pop... Perry White, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen right out of the classic George Reeves Superman TV series, and the final press conference also happens to have Clark Kent, Billy Batson, Jack Ryder, Vickie Vale,  Nelli Majors (a reporter from an episode of the TV show), and "Ritt Bried" since they can't use Britt Ried, the Green Hornet, without the license. It's a great send off to a fun series. This isn't the last we'll see of this universe, with Batman '66 Meets the Mn from UNCLE starting this week, and Batman '66 Meets the Avengers (the Steed and Peel ones), already announced, but for now, I'm glad this big, flashy issue is the final on.

Grampa Simpson's Unbelievable Adventures #1
Story: Max Davison
Art: Hilary Barta, Andrew Pepoy, & Art Villanueva

The Simpson comics One Shot Wonders series have produced lots of interesting and fun comics. While many have been anthologies featuring that issue's spotlight character, but others have been more experimental, such as the McBain one shot that was a comic that folded out into a poster. This issue, focusing on Abe "Grampa" Simpson, is one of those more unusual issues, as it is what us kids of the '70s and '80s know as a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story, where at the bottom of each page, you get to choose what happens next by turning to one page or another. You'd think with only 22 pages to work with, that would really limit the potential, but it works exceptionally well. If you've ever watched The Simpsons, you know that Grampa has a habit of telling some... colorful stories (and by colorful I mean completely crazy and rambling), so if there's any character that works with this format, it's him. Page one has Grampa in a spaceship, and from there it just gets crazier. Depending on your choices, Grampa can fight aliens or pirates, become a jazzman, take up his professional wrestling career one more time, become a wheelman for Fat Tony, and more. It's all the fun of "Choose Your Own Adventure" with none of the logic!

Lumberjanes #21
Story: Shannon Watters & Kat Leyh
Art: Carey Pietsch & Maarta Laiho

Every issue of Lumberjanes is a collection of fun, character, and excitement; there are very few other comics on the market that pack more all ages wonder into its pages. Opening with the greatest beach volleyball scene ever in comics, and maybe in pop culture, what starts out as seemingly an easy merit badge accomplishment for April turns into a crusade when it turns out every one of the Roanoke Cabin has to succeed before any of them get the badge, and April, still stinging from last arc where her she put her own goals above her friends for a while, feels like councilor Seafarin' Karen has implied our lead aren't a good team, and she has to prove her wrong. And because this is Lumberjanes, it turns out Karen's boat has been stolen by selkies (mythological women who can turn into seals and back), and so April figures the best way to prove to Karen that they're a great team is to help Karen get her boat back. And so Roanoke Cabin split up: Jo, April, and Mal go to work out a plan with Karen, while Molly and Ripley, along with Ripley's raccoon friend Bubbles, head into the woods to find the Bear Woman, figuring they might learn some more about shape-shifters from her. The Bear Woman is her usual... pleasant self, grumping at Molly and Ripley and indicating there's a difference between what she can do and what the selkies can. Meanwhile, we learn the selkies believe Karen stole one of the seal skins that allows one of their friends to turn back into a seal, something Karen denies, and won't return the boat until they get it back. And we also learn a secret about Karen at the end of the issue I won't reveal here, but I have to say: with two weeks left in the year, Seafarin' Karen is the character find of the year for me. She's gruff, tough, has scars and wears an eyepatch, and that last page reveal? Well, read the comic, and if you've read this blog for a while, you'll know what I think is so awesome. The charm of the issue is in the determination our leads show, and how they really want to help Karen. We see lots of little character beats, like Ripley being excited to hug a seal, which shows that she is just the most innocent and wide eyed of the cast, a reminder of Mal's fear of the water, and April really trying to show her friends that she learned her lesson. I can't say enough good things about Lumberjanes; it's a comic about friendship and mythological monsters, which is a combination that works beautifully.

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer Versus the Vampire Zoo
Story: Van Jensen
Art: Dusty Higgins

It really is one of those ideas that's so perfect, you're surprised nobody thought of it before: Pinocchio, who's made of wood and whose nose grows every time he lies, is made to slay vampires. Just break off the nose and instant stake! After four graphic novels, the Pinocchio Vampire Slayer series ended last year, and I'll be honest, it's waiting for the full recommended reading treatment, because it's great. This one shot, though, is a lost chapter, based off what felt like a throw away line in one of the later volumes about a vampire gorilla. The title really says it all about this comic. Pinocchio, along with his friend Carlotta, a group of other living wooden puppets, and the blue fairy and the woodsman Cherry (this book draws from the original Carlo Collodi novel, not the bowdlerized Disney version), run across a zoo populated by vampire animals, led by a glasses wearing, intelligent gorilla; basically it's Grodd if he were a vampire, which is pretty damn terrifying. If you've never read any volume of the series before, this issue gives you a good feeling for who Pinocchio is, as well as all the commedia dell'arte influenced puppets of the Great Puppet Theater. If you're looking for a fun comic that has a lot of action and some creepy vampire animals drawn beautifully, well this is a comic that was made for you.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 8/15

Daredevil #17
Story: Mark Waid
Art: Mike Allred

Mark Waid has done a great job of keeping Daredevil to relatively short arcs, two to three issues, but with plot lines that connect the whole series. But this issue is a done-in-one, a great flashback to a time not long after Matt Murdock took up the identity of Daredevil, and it's spectacular. I'm a sucker for done-in-ones to begin with, and Waid does a great job of not only telling a fun superhero story here, but really getting to the heart of Matt and what makes him tick. What starts out as Matt and Foggy Nelson, his law partner and best friend, having an argument over Foggy not pulling his weight quickly shifts into a battle as Stilt-Man breaks into the offices of Murdock and Nelson. Yes, you heard me, Stilt-Man, Q-list villain with the costume with the really long legs. As one might expect, Daredevil makes quick work of Stilt-Man, and returns to save Foggy from a hitman, and finds out what Foggy has been up to. It touches on the core of what drives Matt, what makes him tick, and shows exactly how well Foggy knows him, acting as a counterpoint to last issue, where Foggy kicked Matt out of the office. Waid is a writer who knows how to play to an artists strength, and he does a great job of letting Mike Allred run wild in his guest issue. Allred gets lots of panels of Matt swinging his way through the city, showing off his superhero chops, and still pulls off the touching scene between Matt and Foggy beautifully. Daredevil is my favorite book coming out from Marvel right now, and as long as each issue is as fun as this one, it will be for a long time coming.

Nightwing #12
Story: Kyle Higgins
Art: Andres Guinaldo

There are some comics that are very good month in and month out. They might not jump out at you and scream, "This is AMAZING!" but you know you're going to be in for a good ride every time you pick up an issue. Nightwing has been a book that has been quietly moving along, telling solid stories, since the New 52. There were a couple of OH WOW issues early in the run, leading into "Night of Owls" and even after the event, things have been interesting. I like the way writer Kyle Higgins portrays Dick, not denying all the growth he went through in the old DC Universe and his time as Batman, but telling stories about Dick continuing to grow. Nightwing confronts Paragon this issue, who framed him for murder, and has been trying to destroy the "false idols" of vigilantes in Gotham. But more interesting was Dick talking to Sofia Branch, the daughter of Tony Zucco, the man who killed his parents. Sofia was introduced during "The Black Mirror," Scott Snyder's arc on Detective Comics, and returns here, still as the head of a Gotham bank Dick is trying to do business with. The issue ends with it looking like the two of them are going to be working together, and unsure of where they stand in terms of each other. With Dick's mostly catastrophic relationship history, and just how well it's been going for him since the reboot, I can only imagine how this this is going to work out, and none of those imaginings are good.

Revival #2
Story: Tim Seeley
Art: Mike Norton

I didn't grab the first issue of Revival until two weeks back, since I had a light week and wanted to try out something new. I was pleasantly surprised at the first issue, and snagged the second. One day in rural Wasau, Wisconsin, all the recently deceased just sat up and went back to living their lives. They aren't shambling zombies, but just people. There's definitely a mystery of how they came back, and whether it's a mystical or biological cause, but this isn't a zombie comic. It's a supernatural comic, no doubt, but it's main character is Officer Dana Cypress, so there's a crime element to it as well. And more than crime or horror, the comic is about people. Dana's family are deeply a part of the story, her father the sheriff and her sister, Martha, who is one of the "revived." This issue sees the introduction of a new cast member as well, an "exorcist" who is a con man and playing on the fears in the town after Revival Day. I've seen the book described as farmland noir, and it has a creepy feel you don't get in normal noirs. Noir is a city genre, and moving it out into the country sends an extra shiver, making it more gothic. Seeley and Norton do an excellent job of building their cast and their setting, and I look forward to seeing what payoffs, and what other mysteries, are coming down the pike.

Saga #6
Story: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Fiona Staples

Saga hits what seems to be a natural act break this issue, but it's not leaving its characters with any time to breathe. Brian K. Vaughan has been a favorite writer of mine for years, and I was hugely excited to see him returning to comics, and this series, a mixture of space opera, high fantasy, and the on-the-run road story is just excellent fun. Alana and Marko, our starcrossed lovers and protagonists, have found the rocketship forest and escape with Hazel, their daughter, but their pursuers aren't done yet. Prince Robot IV, pursuing Alana and Marko, has a conversation with freelance bounty hunter The Will, and it seems like things aren't going to end well for Robot. Vaughan's strengths as a writer are many, but it's his talent for dialogue that really pops in this book, with characters who are witty without sounding unnatural. The breakout character for me throughout this arc has been The Will, whose moral ambiguity sits him among a lot of the great sci-fi heroes and villains. There's a tow month gap in between issues now, but in November, Saga will be back with a trade of the fist six issues and a new one. Don't be surprised if you see a recommended reading on this book in time for that trade, but if you can't wait, hunt down the six issues. Trust me, it's worth it.

Saucer Country #6
Story: Paul Cornell
Art: Jimmy Broxton

Saucer Country wrapped up it's first full arc last month, and this issue is a one off that bridges the gap in between two arcs with, "A Field Guide to Flying Saucers." This is really a talking heads issue, with most of principle cast gathered round and hearing a history of UFO sightings and abduction lore, tied in with ancient myth that is strangely similar and connected to that more modern myth. This is the kind of thing that some writers would present and would come off as tremendously dull and didactic, but Paul Cornell handles it with a light touch and makes it interesting. It's interesting to look at this book in conjunction with Cornell's other title, last week's reviewed Demon Knights. Demon Knights is an action fantasy, with crazy fight scenes and over the top characters, while Saucer Country is much more thoughtful. While there's not a ton of forward plot of character development, it's an interesting detour, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lore rears its head in future issues of the series.