Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/13

Abe Sapien #30
Story: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie
Art: Santiago Caruso & Dave Stewart

Abe Sapien is the darkest of the Mignolaverse titles. While BPRD has a lot of adventure to it, Lobster Johnson is a pulp action book, and even Hellboy in Hell has a spooky, supernatural vibe, Abe Sapien is a soul searching story of one man who doesn't know his place in the world. But occasionally, the series has these interesting one off issues that take us away from Abe in the present and let us see some of his past. This issue is one of those, and it is a sight to behold. Back in 1983, Abe is spending the night talking to Professor Bruttenholm, the father figure of the various B.P.R.D. agents, and Abe stumbles across a book of spells and magic by a mage named Gustav Strubl who lived in the nineteenth century and has since returned from the dead and, unbeknownst to Abe, been on his trail and in his orbit for some time in the present. Bruttenholm brushes it off and heads to bed, but a Dr. Malloy comes in and tells Abe the story of Strubl, a story of dark schools, witches, trips to Hell, and prophecy. It's a delightfully classic horror story, Strubl being a Doctor Faustus-esque figure who wanders the world trying to gain a position in the world to come when Hell rises. And the story ends with a classic end of horror movie/story disappearing act. The pleasure of what Mignola and his various collaborators do when telling these kind of stories is that they take tropes and twist them into a slightly new formation, often with the help of an able artist. This issue's artist is an artist new to the Mignolaverse and to American comics: Santiago Caruso, whose art is absolutely astounding. His art has a very European style, which makes sense being he;s a European artist, with soft lines and inks that make for eerie shadows. His devils and demons have proportions that are large and just a bit off, adding to their sense of the unnatural. And his version of Hellboy is excellent: I'd love to see him do a Hellboy short at some point in the future. Generally, there's an almost Hieronymous Bosch vibe to the issue that really adds to the horror of the issue. If you're looking for a fun, one off horror story, this issue of Abe Sapien is a great choice.

Gotham Academy #14
Story (Framing Sequence): Brenden Fletcher
Art (Framing Sequence): Adam Archer & Sandra Hope

After Olive Silverlock's encounters with Hugo Strange and her family history, and the Robin War, Gotham Academy takes a break from the more serious plots for a light-hearted anthology arc, "Yearbook." When Maps Mizoguchi is turned down to join the yearbook at Gotham Academy, her best friend Olive gives her a scrapbook to make her own yearbook, and so Maps begins making yearbook pages around some of the wilder adventures of the year we haven't seen yet. In "Animal Science 101" (Story: Derek Fridolfs. Art: Dustin Nguyen), Colton, the school's second story man, breaks into the  science lab during prank week only to find that Dr. Langstrom's experiments aren't so easily taken; "Queen Glee" (Story & Art: Katie Cook), sees Olive and Maps trying to find out why Dyllin, head of the Glee Club, has suddenly made the Glee Club more popular than ever; and "Scottie Dog" (Story: Hope Larson. Art: Kris Mukai) follows an adventure of history teahcer Professor MacPherson when she was a student at Gotham Academy, and her meeting with another student with a special power. The stories are charming and fun; each with a slightly different flavor. The first, from Fridolfs & Nguyen, has an action tone, with Colton and his friend Eric being chased by a genetically altered goat. Katie Cook's is a mystery with a high school vibe and cute cat videos, and if there's something Kate Cook draws better than anyone, it's cute cats. Hope Larson and Kris Mukai's story is one of teen angst and accepting yourself for what you are and not letting other's opinions matter. They each hit a different genre, but all feel perfectly in line with what we've seen in Gotham Academy. A gem of the current Batman line, Gotham Academy works in so many different ways, and it looks like the Yearbook arc with spotlight many of them. I'm curious to see whether the stories will remain whimsical, or take on a more serious edge as the arc continues.

Leaving Megalopolis: Surviving Megalopolis #1
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Jim Calafiore & Jason Wright

After Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore's dark super hero graphic novel, Leaving Megalopolis, was published beyond it's Kickstarter backers by Dark Horse, I reviewed it; it's a great, dark superhero story that doesn't deconstruct the genre but embraces its darkest aspects. Now, in Surviving Megalopolis, a new story that opens a month after the original series ended, things have not improved in the city of Megaloplis, which remains in the control of the superheroes who have been turned into monsters. But while we do spend time with the still evil heroes as they retrieve the body of Overlord, the hero who turned on the rest at the end of Leaving Megalopolis, and see just how depraved they are, the focus of the story is again on the normal people who live in the world around them. Mina Gutierrez, the chief protagonist of the original graphic novel, has spent the month getting ready to make her move against the evil heroes, as she remains in Megalopolis. We get more of her backstory, and meet another hero through her flashback, the Crimson Shadow, this world's Batman analogue, and she confronts the current Crimson Shadow with a surprising revelation if his identity. Harold Lamb, who Mina helped escape, is tracked down by a man who is working for a wealthy sponsor seeking to make a trip into Megalopolis to find her missing husband and needs a guide. As with any Gail Simone project, this issue nicely blends action with character. Mina and Harold are both great, layered characters, and Bennet Tanner, Harold's handler and new love interest, is one of those men of seemingly casual violence, who claims to not like violence but easily takes out two large men. And I am very curious about the origins of this new Crimson Shadow and how his background ties with Mina's. And credit goes Calafiore for his excellent designs; Crimson Shadow and Amphibonaut, who is an underwater hero, have these designs that are both fresh and still hearken back to classic superhero aesthetics. If you haven't read Leaving Megalopolis, that's fine; Surviving Megalopolis gives you everything you need to understand the world, and provides a superhero story tinged with horror and great characters.

Reviews of Comics for Wednesday 5/13

Abe Sapien #23
Story: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie
Art: Kevin Nowlan

The world of Hellboy has been getting exceedingly dark in recent years. This isn't a complaint; when monsters are rising all over the world and society is crumbling, that's to be expected. The B.P.R.D. is barely holding the line, Hellboy is dead, and probably hardest hit is Abe Sapien, wandering the highways of America, trying to find some indication he isn't the forerunner of a new race and encountering people who always seem to wind up hurt or worse. But this issue? This is a different thing. It's a flashback to 1992, and the world is a lighter place. Hellboy and Abe are on a mission for the B.P.R.D., investigating a death that is being attributed to Ogopogo, Canada's answer to the Loch Ness Monster. What might be a simple monster story turns into a story that has human greed at its center, as well as a worshipper of the old gods and creatures, something that's pretty standard for Hellboy and Abe. The thing that got me really excited for this issue was that it's a Hellboy and Abe story. When you look back on the publication history of the characters, you realize that they've been apart for more years than they were a team, but many of the most memorable Hellboy stories feature Abe. The two have that comfortable partnership that shows how good friends they are, and they play off each other perfectly; Hellboy is the bull in the china shop, while Abe tries to think things out more. And Kevin Nowlan's art is gorgeous as ever. While his stuff isn't as dark and foreboding as many of the other artists who work on Mignolaverse stories, he still captures the essence of the characters. If you've been away from Hellboy and his world for a while, or if you've been curious for a while to try it out, this is a great one-off to start with.


And Dan Grote hits us with a Marvel twofer this week...

Ms. Marvel 15

Story: G. Willow Wilson

Art: Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring

Let’s take a minute to talk about Bruno, because if we don’t talk about Bruno, I’m gonna go on a rant about the Inhumans supplanting mutants that’s not fit for this blog.

(But seriously, there’s a scene in this issue in which Kitty Kamala turns the Danger Room New Attilan training salle on a N’Garai demon pair of Inhuman goons on Christmas Eve Mother’s Day).

As much as I’ve had problems with the current arc of Ms. Marvel based on my own biases against the Inhumans post-Infinity, no one can deny G. Willow Wilson writes characters worth giving a damn about. And I love the friendship/partnership between Kamala and Bruno. When Kamala finds herself caught by Inhuman insurrectionists, Bruno drops everything, runs out of his chemistry class, leaps – arms flapping – over giant dinosaur bones being transported down a hallway (props to Takeshi Miyazawa for this imagery), scrambles through the streets of Jersey City yelling at his phone, charters a water taxi to New Attilan, gets accosted by guards and, finally, jumps down a garbage chute with our hero and pulls her to safety. The only power at play here is friendship, and it’s extremely affirming.

Also, if you read any other book filled with Star Wars and Star Trek references this month, make it this one. In addition to the garbage chute scene, the main Inhuman baddie, Lineage (who totally looks like someone gave the Purple Man anime horns), effectively says, “There is another,” explaining that one of Kamala’s relatives is an Inhuman. As for the Star Trek reference, well, think about what Kamala’s last name is, and extrapolate from there.

Secret Wars #2

Story: Jonathan Hickman

Art: Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina

Where the first issue of Secret Wars felt like an ending, issue 2 feels like the beginning, like we’ve joined a new story in media res. At long last, the reader has arrived at Marvel’s promised destination. Behold Battleworld.

It wouldn’t be a Jonathan Hickman story if there weren’t about 616 balls in the air at once, so here’s the laundry list of what we know so far:

Doctor Doom is God. He rules Battleworld from the trunk of Yggdrasil alongside a council that includes Doctor Strange and Susan and Valeria Richards. His castle is guarded by a Galactus that stands like a giant incinerator churning flames up into the sky, Franklin Richards meditating in the palm of his hand. Strange, the Sheriff of Agamatto, acts as Doom’s voice, speaking for him and meting out punishments on Doom’s behalf unless Doom wishes otherwise.

The world is policed by Thors, plural, and in fact the POV character for this issue is a rookie Thor on his first day on the job.

Battleworld is broken up into kingdoms runs by barons, including Higher Avalon, ruled by the Braddock family, and Bar Sinister, ruled by Mr. Sinister.

Sinister is one of the book’s best characters, showing a casual disdain for the authority of others while clearly benefitting from that authority’s largesse. When the Thors come to arrest him for discord, he is splayed spread-eagle on his throne being waited on by servants who fetch him hamburgers and attach his fringed cape. Even decapitated in battle, Sinister mocks those around him.

Those who displease Doom are tossed over the Shield, a giant wall protecting the rest of the kingdom from hordes of zombies, Ultrons, and the drones of Annihilus. Among the zombies shown in this issue is a Venom.

Reed Richards’ Raft – shown fleeing Earth 616 amid the incursion in the last issue – has been discovered crash-landed on a section of Battleworld called Utopolis populated with Moloids. At issue’s end, the hatch opens, in a reveal I won’t spoil.

The mixing and matching of characters adds fun to the book’s Game of Thrones-y tone. Watching Brian Braddock and Sinister joust for Doom’s benefit while characters like Apocalypse, Madelyn Pryor, Hyperion, Roma, and the Maestro (the Hulk of Future Imperfect) look on feels like something new, even if the characters are all known quantities and the book wears its inspirations on its sleeve.

Esad Ribic’s art is straight-up beautiful. Powerful imagery strafes this entire issue, from the Doom godhead to which the Thors pay tribute, to the smoking Galactus, to Baron Sinister’s kingdom of ruby quartz, to the sight of the Raft stuck in the ruins of an old statue of what appears to be Captain America.

So if issue 1 left you doubting the readability of Secret Wars, I’d still suggest trying issue 2, as it’s far more the jumping-on point issue 1 should have been.

Reviews of Comics from 5/14 & A Special Announcement

Abe Sapien #13
Story: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie
Art: Max Fiumara

This is not a normal issue of Abe Sapien. This is not a normal issue of most mainstream comics. While our titular protagonist does appear in the issue, he is by no means the center of the story. This is a story in the classic Eisner Spirit vein, where Abe steps into a situation and it is more the story of the people who are in that situation. This is the story of a man driven mad by his own past and by the changes in the world that have been wrought in the past few years throughout the books featuring the B.P.R.D. and their allies, and the woman he has kidnapped. He believes they are the last man and woman on Earth, and she has been broken by the losses she suffered when the horrors came out of the ground. The issue has no dialogue; it is told entirely through narrative that goes into the head of these two characters. It isn't first person narrative either, but a sort of third person omniscient that allows you to see without the bias of a first person narration. Throughout the issue, you get to know these two characters well, you see the man's background and the woman's pain. You see him first spot Abe and view him as the serpent in his new garden of Eden. The art of Max Fiumara is dark and perfect for this particularly dark story. Abe Sapien has been the most introspective book in the Mignolaverse since its inception, and this issue does such interesting things with point of view that it is something well worth checking out.

Batgirl #31
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Fernando Pasarin

So, first a quick discussion of the actual issue. This is a great creepy horror movie kind of story, with people trapped in a building with a monster chasing them. Barbara has a reunion of sorts with her sorta boyfriend Ricky, only to have things go very wrong; I guess when your dad shoots your boyfriend, things aren't going to go so well. And the issue ties nicely with both the rivalry between Batgirl and her main nemesis in this current series, Knightfall, and the new mastermind from the recent annual, Mr. Rain. And the story is done in one, so it makes a good starting point for new readers. But, as good as any issue of Gail Simone's Batgirl is, let's talk about what I came into this issue really excited for: Ragdoll! For those of you who don't know Ragdoll, and shame on you, Ragdoll was created by Simone as part of her Villains United mini-series, which lead into the ongoing Secret Six. Ragdoll is a man who had extensive surgery dome to himself to allow all his joints to move freely in any and all directions, making him the ultimate contortionist. He is also completely out of hiss mind, having little to no morality and saying things that qualify at best as random and at worst as creepy to the extreme. Being his first full appearance in the New 52 (he has appeared in the background in Arkham scenes before), I was a little worried. Despite being written by his creator, I admit to being worried that he might be changed in this new world. Boy was I wrong! Ragdoll is still the complete, unpredictable madman that he was before the change.Simone hasn't lost any of the voice, and artist Fernando Pasarin draws a creepily bendy Ragdoll. If you loved Secret Six, or just like great, weird villains, this is a great issue to jump on.

Tales From the Con: Year One

Story: Brad Guigar

Art: Chris Giarrusso

This issue is a collection of comic strips published on the website of Emerald City Comic Con. They're fun little one offs poking gentle fun at fandom and con culture. It's hard to write a full on review of something like this, since there's no continuity or continuing narratives, and trying to describe the strips would be like explaining a joke; it just doesn't work. But I can say writer Brad Guigar writes some very funny material without sinking into snark or nastiness, like so many strips about comic book culture do.And the art is by Chris Giarrusso, best known for his amazingly funny Mini-Marvels strips that appeared in Marvel comics throughout the 90s and for G-Man, his all ages creator owned superhero comic published through Image. His art is a delight, fun and whimsical, and its what got me to pick up this book. I'm glad to say the words lived up to the art, and if you're in the mood for a good laugh, Tales from the Con is a good book to sit back and chuckle your way through.

Now, for this week's special announcement: over the weekend, Matt Signal contributor Dan Grote and I joined the regulars on the Shut Up Kids Podcast for their superhero extravaganza. Check out the podcast here at talkbacker.com to hear a discussion of comic books, movies, and TV, as well as super hero music and the madness of Alan Moore. Oh, and for those of you who read this blog at work (and I know some of you do, don't deny it) there's is some stronger language than I use here and some suggestive dialogue, so plug in those headphones or wait until you get home before you listen, k? Thanks to Dan Milczarski, Nick Nightly, and the Colonel for having us on!