Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 4/20

Criminal 10th Anniversary Special
Story: Ed Brubaker
Art: Sean Phillips & Elizabeth Breitweiser

The world of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's Criminal is not a world for children, either to read or to live in. It's a world where the good and the innocent alike are likely to wind up dead, and where the innocent are few and far between. For the tenth anniversary of the series debut, this double sized one shot revisits the series two most popular characters, Tracy Lawless, the soldier turned hitman, and his petty crook father, Teeg. Set in 1979, the stories from this era usually focus on Teeg, but this is a Tracy story, narrated by a young Tracy as his father takes him on a road trip. Of course, being Teeg Lawless, this road trip has to do with Teeg hunting for a criminal associate, and he's bringing Tracy along because cops will look less at a father and son together than a man travelling alone. And while there's crime in the story,it's mostly off panel. The story instead is of Tracy left alone as his father hunts his cohort, and Tracy making a friend. This sounds like a simple enough story for a twelve year old, but there's nothing simple about Tracy. His father has forbidden him to make friends, after all, because that could get them remembered. But Tracy meets a friendless girl named Gabby, probably a little too smart for her own good, and they develop a friendship. It's a coming of age story in the style of Stand By Me, as Tracy and Gabby just act like kids, which you get the immediate impression is not something Tracy gets to do much of at all (and if you've read other Criminal stories about the Lawless family, you know it for sure). But in the end Tracy learns the hard lesson that just being good isn't enough to survive in his father's world, and he makes the hard choice to protect his one friend, and any innocence he might have had left is gone. Every time I think Sean Phillips and Elizabeth Breitweiser can't get any better as an art team, a new series or story comes out, and I'm blown away. The sheer pathos of Tracy as he rejects Gabby is one of the most emotional scenes I've seen in a long while, and the fact that the kids look like kids, not just small adults, a flaw in a lot of comic art, is impressive as all hell.

As with the last Criminal special, this issue has interspersed in it pages from an in-universe comic. And while the previous comic was a Savage Sword of Conan knock off, this one is a combination of horror and the 70s Kung-Fu craze, "Fang, The Kung-Fu Werewolf." Let me just go on the record as sayong that, if the Brubaker/Phillips/Breitweiser team wanted to do a full on Fang comic for an issue or two, I would be all over it. And also as with the previous Criminal special, this issue comes in both a standard comic and magazine sized format, and while either is a fine, the magazine is such a great package, I would highly recommend it for all readers to pick it up that way.

Divinity II #1
Story: Matt Kindt
Art: Trevor Hairsine, Ryan Winn, & David Baron

Valiant's first Divinity was the first series from the new Valiant to star a new character, Abram Adams, the Russian cosmonaut sent out into deep space during the height of the Cold War to return decade later with god-like powers. The sequel picks up a thread left hanging by the last series: what became of the other two cosmonauts that traveled into space with Adams? This opening issue of the new Divinity series follows Valentina Volkov, one of the remaining cosmonauts and a loyal Soviet. Volkov was a street kid who was taken off the street and raised by a doctor, a man who truly believed that the Soviet system was the best. The story moves back and forth between Valentina on Earth before leaving and her and Kazmir, the third cosmonaut, trapped on the Unknown, the strange world that transformed Adams. We see how loyal to the Soviet state Valentina was, not just in the flashbacks but on the Unknown, where Kazmir tells her he loves her and she shrugs it off, possibly the only person she will ever see again, because it is against the program they were in to develop attachments. And when she removes her helmet and is transformed as Adams was, she mercilessly kills Kazmir to power the pod that will return her to Earth because that's what she must do for the State. Valentina isn't evil; it would be easier if she was. What she is is a true believer,and in many ways that is more dangerous. As she returns to Earth and receives the radio and television signals beamed into space that tel the story of the fall of Soviet Russia, she returns home and goes immediately to Vladimir Putin, who clearly is ready to set her loose on the world. The issue is dense with history and symbolism, as "Little Myshka, " Little Mouse, the endearment that Valentina's adoptive father used and the one Putin knows, the mouse they experimented on to make the perfect Soviet, is prepared to head off and once more help the USSR to rise, or so it seems. Trevor Hairsine's art is gorgeous, both in the realistic and gritty world of the Soviet Union and the amazing foreign landscapes of the Unknown. Valiant has done a great job with their self-contained four issue mini-series, making them easily accessible; everything you need to know from the original Divinity is summed up straight away in this issue, so Divinity II would be a great place to try out Valiant if you haven't yet.

Harley's Little Black Book #3
Story: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Joseph Michael Linsnner & Hi-Fi

If the Harley Quinn monthly is a fun comic, Harley's Little Black Book, Harley's bi-monthly team-up book, takes everything that makes the monthly great and amps it up to eleven. It's a broad, kooky comic, and this issue has Harley meeting Zatanna as the magician comes to perform at the club that is in Harley's building to get away from the magical chaos of her superhero life, while Harley has guests, the London based super team she met back in issue one. But things aren't that simple, as a trio of ghosts, trapped on the Coney Island boardwalk, wind up taking up residence in Harley's building to avoid a ghost-demon that is hunting them. Zatanna agrees to help the ghosts stop their tormenter, and we learn that Harley can see ghosts for an as yet unexplained reason. The story continues with Harley and Zatanna travelling into the afterlife to find the ghost-demon who is hunting the spirits, and to find the demon who cursed him to stop the whole thing. It's a clever, fun superhero story, made all the better by Jospeh Michael Linsner's art. A famed "good girl" artoist of the '90s, Linsner is best known for having created Dawn, but his work here is lovely. Not only does he draw a stunning Zatanna and Harley, but his demons and monsters are also great, creepy and slithery or demonic. There's a funny gag with the demon behind the whole thing, a name that comes out to the fore with Ztanna's backwards speaking magic. And as a real plus, Zatanna is back in her traditional costume! A comic with magic, comedy, and bunnies hopping around. What more could you ask for?

Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files: Wild Card #1
Story: Jim Butcher & Mark Powers
Art: Carlos Gomez & Mohan

As the wait for Peace Talks, the new Dresden Files novel, stretches out, it's the short stories and original comics that are keeping me sane. The new mini-series, Wild Card is set deep in the thick of the novels, at the height of wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden's powers and friendships, with most of his staunchest allies at his side: his apprentice, Molly; his brother, Thomas; his friend at the M.E.'s office, Waldo Butters; and his police contact; Sgt. Murphy. The exact timeline seems to place it after the events of the novel White Night and the last comic mini-series, Down Town, and before my favorite Dresden Novel to date, Small Favor. One thing the comics can do that the first person narrated novels can't is show things that Harry doesn't see, as this mini-series begins with two women fleeing some sort of supernatural threat that seemingly removes their souls. This seeming is made more evident when Harry, Murph, and Molly go to the morgue where Butters shows them the perfect corpses left behind with no cause of death, Harry begins his investigation with the first soul sucking monsters he can think of, the succubi and inccubi of the White Court of Vampires, of which his brother Thomas is one. The set-up allows readers not familiar with the books to get a feel for Harry and his friends and family as we see Molly's growing skills as a wizard, Harry and Thomas's brotherly affection (and through that, details of the White Court), and Harry and Murphy's sometimes strained relationship, although they are the best of friends in the end, always, which I hope we get to see as well. There's also a great scene with Harry and Molly talking about power and the right and wrong ways to use it, a central theme of the Dresden Files novels. Artist Carlos Gomez has drawn the last handful of Dresden related comics, and his feel for the characters has grown with each one, and the characters are resembling Jim Butcher's descriptions more and more. I'm also very excited for this story because I've read about the series in an interview and known the identity of the big bad, the threat who de-souled the women at the beginning of the issue and attacked a police office in the middle, and it's a character from myth and story I've been waiting to see appear in the Dresdenverse since the Faeries became a major presence back in book four, Summer Knight. I won't say the name here, but, well, lord what fools these mortals be (a little hint if you know your Shakespeare). The Dresden Files universe is rick with story, myth, and character, and these original comics do a great job of telling smaller stories of the adventures of Harry Dresden.

And Dan Grote reviews the new special about everyone's favorite Luchador rooster...

Chew: Demon Chicken Poyo

Story by John Layman

Art by Rob Guillory

First, he saved an English village from a mad scientist making it rain livestock. Then, he freed a faraway fantasy realm from the tyranny of mutant vegetables and was crowned king. He also did a bunch of awesome stuff in between.

Now, after having his neck snapped, everyone’s favorite cybernetic luchador rooster assassin (and all-around badass motherf$&#@%g bird) has taken his rightful place as a lord of hell.

As John Layman and Rob Guillory wind down their amazing, hysterical Image series, they’ve given us one last one-shot featuring Poyo, the poultry-turned-psycho government agent who steals fans’ hearts a little more with each successive two-page spread of him fighting some equally ridiculous monster animal or vegetable (Pengthulu remains my favorite, but this issue’s two-pager against Galaxseal is another feast for the eyes).

In his latest adventure, Poyo stars in his own Christmas-themed children’s tale, in which he takes down a disgruntled Santa Claus and his Seussical henchman, the Grumpass, after Santa declares war on Christmas and breaks the hearts of the children of Blun, as a narrator details Poyo’s adventures in not-necessarily-always-rhyming couplets.

But this children’s tale is a distraction from the framing sequence, in which a priest attempts to exorcise a little girl possessed by an ancient Sumerian demon and of the ability to vomit pea soup with firehose-like force. Poyo arrives in this sequence as well to mete out justice and generally be awesome.

But as always, Poyo disappears to his next adventure before he can be properly thanked for saving the day via ultraviolence.

And also as always, Rob Guillory’s art is a sick delight, brightly colored but with the gross details of John Kricfalusi animation. No one in Chew is attractive, even the people who theoretically are supposed to be. And how could they be with all the vomit and blood and missing limbs and gross food-based powers?

I’m behind on the trades – the last thing I read was Detective Colby snapping Poyo’s neck in issue #45 – so I think a key plot point from the series may have been spoiled for me, but if you just want to read a story about a robot rooster killing all manner of creature with gleeful abandon, well, really, you don’t have any other options.

Legends and Infinities: A Wish List of Star Wars Stories

It's the last Friday before The Force Awakens opens, and I wanted to make this Force Friday post something different. I had a couple ideas, and they're things I'll do someday but none were different enough. And then it dawned on me: everyone has a story they wish they had seen from A Galaxy Far, Far Away. So I reached out to some of my friends who are Star Wars fans, and asked what stories that had never been told they'd like to see. Continuity be damned, these are wild ideas, some that might work in the current canon, some Legends, some that would be considered Infinities (those stories that could never be in continuity, usually What If? or comedy).

We'll start out with my list, because it's my blog and I get to go first. I focused on stories tied into the Legends continuity, the old EU. I know it's a pipe dream to expect any of this to pop up again, but I hold out some hope...

Thrawn: Into the Unkown
Timothy Zahn and Nick Dragotta

If there's one character in all the Expanded Universe I wish would show up again in any way, it is the Grand Admiral Thrawn, the honorable Imperial Grand Admiral who is a mix between Irwin Rommel and Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant military leader who is the opposite of the bullying, narcissistic Imperials of the classic trilogy. Readers know that sometime around Empire Strikes Back, Thrawn traveled into the Unknown Regions, the vast quadrant of space unexplored by the Empire, populated by his own people, the Chiss, and countless other species, and spent the next few years fighting threats and establishing his beachhead, The Empire of the Hand. But other than a few scattered stories, very little is known of this time. A comic would be a great place for Thrawn's creator, Timothy Zahn, to tell stories of Thrawn battling new alien threats and setting up his undertaking. It would also feature the characters established as Thrawn's subordinates, like his right hand man,Voss Parck, the stormtroopers known as The Hand of Judgement, and eventually Baron Soontir Fel. For art, I picked Nick Dragotta, whose work on East of West shows he has a great sense of design that he could let run wild in creating the alien vistas of a part of space little explored anywhere in Star Wars literature. It's hard to write a story where the Empire is the good guy, but if any writer could do it, it's Zahn, and Thrawn and his crew are ideal for rehabilitating the image of the Empire as a monolithic force for evil.

Wraith Squadron
Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto

Created by the late, great Aaron Allston, Wraith Squadron was a group of misfits who were gathered by legendary X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles to serve as a combination of X-Wing squadron and Republic Intelligence squad. Yes, they're spies who flew X-Wings, and that's a combination I just love. Appearing as one of the sub-series within the X-Wing novels and popping up in the New Jedi Order and a solo novel set towards the end of the period covered in the Del Rey novels, there are massive gaps in the Wraiths history that a writer could exploit to tell stories of starfighters and espionage. And if there's one writer in comics who has proven his mettle on spy stories, it's Greg Rucka, whose Queen & Country and Whiteout are some of the best spy stories in any format. And his recent Shattered Empire mini-series with Marco Checchetto shows the two of them sure now how to portray a great space battle. And while Rucka isn't known for his humorous stories, he has a biting sense of humor that should work with the Wraiths patented pranks. Let him fill in gaps or create some new Wraiths to go on undercover missions against the Empire and other threats to galactic peace, and you'll get a Star Wars thriller without compare.

Agent of the Empire: Behind Enemy Lines
John Ostrander and Carlos D'Anda

When I wrote a post about series that I felt ended prematurely, the Star Wars series I picked was Agent of the Empire, another espionage book, this one about the James Bond of Imperial Intelligence, Jahan Cross. A lot of what I'm going to write here I talked about in a briefer form there, but my idea for a new Jahan Cross story would flash forward a few years from the end of the previous series, Hard Targets, to shortly after the battle of Yavin. With the Death Star destroyed, Cross would be sent undercover into the Rebel Alliance to find and capture Leia Organa; usually in that post-Yavin world, we're seeing people hunting Luke Skywalker for Vader, or Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt, but Leia is, from a political standpoint, the more important target, as she is the face of the destruction of Alderaan and a rallying symbol for disaffected populations, as well as an able military leader. Cross, who has been doing his job but growing more and more disillusioned with the missions hos boss,Armand Isard, is sending him on, now has even more of a reason to hate the Empire, as he is Alderaanian, which gives him a perfect cover to go to meet Leia. The story would see Cross deal with his doubts about the Empire, and decide whether to join the Alliance, remain loyal to an Empire that destroyed his homeworld, or stay within Imperial Intelligence and try to fix things from within. Readers would also see the beginnings of Ysanne Isard, Armand's daughter and eventual replacement, rising to power within the intelligence community. After the great job he did capturing the classic Star Wars cast on his run with Brian Wood, I think Carlos D'Anda would be a great choice to draw a series where Leia is a central character; fill out the cast with other Alderaanian survivors, like Winter, Leia's best friend and right hand woman, and future Rogue Squadron pilot Tycho Celchu, and you have a series that could wrap up Jahan Cross's story, or set him in a different direction.

That might not be a Jedi, but tell me that Ewok isn't adorable

Itty Bitty Jedi
Art Baltzar & Franco

Kids love Star Wars. And while I wish I could share all my Star Wars comics with my nieces, godson, and other kids I know, I realize many aren't exactly appropriate. So what do you do? You call in Art and Franco, masters of the comics that kids of all ages, from five to fifty-five love. You can have all the Jedi from the prequels, who many kids love thanks to Clone Wars, as younglings at the Jedi Academy, with Yoda as their teacher, and just have them go on fun little adventures. Between Tiny Titans and Itty Bitty Hellboy, you know these guys can make it work. The kids could play games with the Force, compete against other schools, just basically do the kind of things that kids in Art and Franco comics do. I just want to see Yoda, Mace, Qui-Gon, and a baby Obi-Wan in the patented Itty Bitty style.

Legacy: A Tale of Two Solos
Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman

The end of the second volume of Star Wars: Legacy did a good job of wrapping up the dangling plot threads of a series that clearly could have gone on for considerably longer, but any ending that comes down from corporate is going to leave some stories untold. The plot that I most wanted to know more about from the run that was never fleshed out was the connection between the long-lived assassin droid AG-37 and Han Solo, something hinted at in a few panels but never fully explained. I would love to see creators Bechko and Hardman get to come back and tell that story in an oversized one-shot that tells a parallel narrative: in one, we see whatever happened that put AG in Han's debt, and in the other, we see AG working with Ania Solo, Han's descendant and the principal character of Legacy Vol. 2. It would be a fun adventure comic set on the fringe, with plenty of scum and villainy to go around.

Ben Skywalker: Heir to the Force
Christopher Yost and Marcus To

At the end of the Del Rey Legends novel era, Ben Skywalker, the son of Luke and Mara Jade, was in his late teens and was beginning to make his own way, as his father had retired to a more monastic life, but Ben was not ready to take up the mantle as Grand Master of the Jedi. This would be a star-hopping teen adventure comic, with lots of action and teen angst in the classic New Mutants sense. We would see Ben grow as a character, from the pretty together but still young Jedi that he is now to a man who would be able to take up the Skywalker mantle and head the Jedi order. He could get a new master, a new character who would be a no-nonsense Jedi who doesn't take any crap from him, Skywalker or no. His cousin Jaina, who would be starting the order that would become the Imperial Knights in Legacy would appear, as would Ben's love interest/enemy from the Fate of the Jedi series, Vestara Khai. Christopher Yost knows his teen heroes, having written for X-Men: Evolution (where he created X-23) and New X-Men, but the book that makes me think he's dead right for this is his year on Red Robin. I feel like Ben and Tim Drake have a lot in common: they're both serious kids with a legacy at their backs, and they're both detectives. And Yost's partner on the back half of that run, Marcus To, has a kinetic art style that did great stuff with acrobatic superheroes, so it's just another step to get him drawing Jedi.

The New Sith Wars
Joshua Williamson and Riley Rossmo

The main antagonist of the Legacy comics was the One Sith, an order of Sith Lords who put the order before their personal gains, thus making one Sith who would not destroy itself through in fighting. Del Rey's novels, the final ones still taking place decades before the Legacy comics, had started hinting at the One Sith, with small appearances by members of the order in the Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi series, as well as in Paul Kemp's Crosscurrent and Riptide. But in the Fate of the Jedi series, we also met the Lost Tribe, a group of Sith who had been separated from galactic culture for centuries and had just found a way back. While many of the Lost Tribe were killed at the end of the series, their homeworld was still out there with many members. So the question is: what became of them in between the end of the novels and the Legacy comics? Were they absorbed or destroyed by, or did they remain hidden from, the One Sith? This comic would answer that in a comic about bad people doing bad things to each other. Narrated by a Chagrian Sith who is destined by series end to become Darth Wyyrlok, adviser to Darth Krayt (and mother to the Darth Wyyrlok of the Legacy comics), the series would feature battles on disparate worlds between different Sith, and see each of them playing complex games that featured both political manipulation and physical force to make their sect come out on top. Joshua Williamson is writing some of my favorite comics on the market now, and between Ghosted, Nailbiter, Birthright, and Red Skull, he's proven he can write villains and sociopaths in a way that might not make you sympathize with them, but does make you understand and like them a bit, which is important in a book that is populated by Sith. Riley Rossmo draws both creatures of hideous horror and people of immaculate beauty, important to draw the distinction between the hodge podge of tattooed aliens that make up the One Sith and the human beauty and genetic purity obsessed Lost Tribe. The Jedi are usually the lead of Star Wars comics, but there have been notable exceptions where the Sith take center stage; this would be a string addition to those books. And yes, it's really just an excuse to see lots of red lightsabers and people using the force for creative mayhem; sue me, that sounds fun.

Untitled Frontier Jedi Buddy Comedy/Action
Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry

OK, so this one is actually more built around concept and creator than it is on characters, hence the title, or lack thereof. I've been watching some old episodes of Clone Wars recently (there may or may not be an Advent Calendar entry coming up), and realized how much I love the dynamic between Obi-Wan & Anakin and Obi-Wan & Quinlan Vos, and how Star Wars can lend itself really well to two mismatched heroes working together to fight for right. And when it comes to buddy comedies in comics, I can't think of anybody better than Fred Van Lente, who co-wrote Incredible Hercules with Greg Pak, a book that featured blowhard demi-god Hercules and the world's seventh smartest person, young Amadeus Cho, and who wrote Archer and Armstrong, featuring reprobate immortal Aram Ani-Padda and naive martial artist Obadiah Archer. So I'm thinking set the series around the Knights of the Old Republic/Old Republic era, when there was still a wild galactic frontier, and toss in a young impetuous Jedi and her Barabel partner. I'd love the book to have two female leads, as Star Wars has a history of strong female characters and this would be a great place to not only spotlight that, but also give readers another major non-human protagonist. Barabel, a lizard race that are nearly as big and fearsome as Wookiees, and Jedi have a long history of respect together, so the partnership makes sense, and if you make the Jedi the reckless one and the Barabel soldier the more reserved character, you toss the usual expectation on its head, which is right in Van Lente's wheelhouse. Partner him with Clayton Henry, one of his regular collaborators with a bright, energetic style, and you'd have a Star Wars Western for the ages.

Regular Star Wars guest contributor Brandon Borzelli brings you his own list, with tales of prequel era Jedi, Hutts, and a heroic little droid...

Master/Padawan

Grant Morrison and Humberto Ramos

There simply aren't enough stories (books or comics) dealing with Obi-Wan as a young master to Anakin and there are barely any stories that include Qui-Gon at all. This would be a series that would parallel both sets. Humor, frustration, adventure, anger, attachments, maybe even some dark side - all of it could be covered. We would see where Obi-Wan learned as a padawan, but where he failed as a master. At the same time this would cover how Qui-Gon's teachings set Obi-Wan up for failure later. After all, the Anakin story includes Qui-Gon as well. Who better to capture the relationship than someone that mastered Batman and Robin?

Ben Kenobi

John Jackson Miller and Jordi Bernet

The novel, Kenobi is among the very best the Star Wars line has ever produced. The western genre fits with Kenobi on Tatooine and the man-with-no-name fits Obi-Wan well. Luke's life may have been very boring on Tatooine but Obi-Wan's probably wasn't. This doesn't have to circle around Jabba, Fett, and the other well-known characters. This would be a chance to tangle with different gangs and sets of trouble as Obi-Wan looks to make sure the environment around Luke is relatively safe.

Jedi Purge

Randy Stradley and Doug Wheatley

Another comic focused during the Dark Times. This comic would be similar to the Dark Times but jump around a bit more. Darth Vader continues his two-fold quest of 1) Hunting Jedi (against his master's wishes) and 2) Attempting to recruit an apprentice. He would eventually come across a Jedi he knew from the past and potentially admired to the point that he would want this Jedi to turn to the dark side. The comic could potentially touch on Ahsoka, but she would probably need to stay in the shadows when it comes to Vader so as not to conflict with the Rebels TV shows. Dass Jennir and K'Kruhk could make appearances but it seems like this might focus more on Vader and not the Jedi. Although, he would seem a fitting end to Jennir's story would be death at the hands of Vader.

The Hutts

Jeff Lemire

A couple of the Han Solo novels painted an intriguing web of Hutt power and gang warfare between clans. Lemire seems to deal with the "weird" really well and he might be able to pull off the more gruesome aspects of the Hutts in a unique way. Of course, the comic could have some appearances from the known Bounty Hunters and maybe even Han and Chewie. The book could be brutal and fun at the same time.

R2-D2: Hero to the Galaxy

Roger Langridge

How many times has R2 saved the day? Just from the films, six, seven, more? This could be a comic that keeps the focus on R2 and how he works behind the scenes to save the day. The settings could go back as far as the palace on Naboo and work his way through the rebellion years. It would be a more lighthearted book, but it would have real Star Wars-like situations.

Aurra Sing may be a bounty hunter, not a smuggler, but I think this shows Robertson would do well with those Star Wars characters in the fringe.

The Smugglers

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Han and Chewie and a cast of scum and villainy. Star Wars at its best - adventure. With the mix of dog-fighting and complex plots, this kind of story is right up Ennis' alley.

Palpatine

Scott Snyder and R.M. Guera

This is a story that is begging to be told. We don't need constant political drama and manipulation from the character. Some apprentice scenes with Plaguies, some one-off killing of some rivals (maybe even Jedi). It needs to be faster moving than the Prequels but it will be a dark look at a character that is always a supporting role, but such an important one.

The Jedi Masters

Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke

Who better to explore a cosmic force than the mastermind behind the resurgence of Green Lantern? Why is Mace Windu so angry? Where did Yoda come from? How did all the other Jedi Masters come to the council and why are they so weak in comparison? The series would need action, but balanced with character studies. Johns can juggle a large cast like no one else. This would be a great book.

Count Dooku

Rick Remender andTony Moore

If you have ever read Fear Agent then you know where I'm going with this. Remender wrote a time-traveling epic where the lead is an alcoholic with a stubborn attitude to bend things to his will. If Anakin's story is a tragedy then so is Dooku's, except he was replaced and not redeemed as Vader was.

The Sith

John Ostrander and Jan Duursema

Last but not least a comic from the Star Wars team that brought some of the best Clone Wars comics and the epic Legacy tale. Who better to re-write the history of the Sith than this pair? It's all a blank slate to get the universe up to Darth Sidious. This pair knows how to universe-build and present the Sith as a complex set of characters rather than one dimensional as Darth Maul has been depicted.

My partner in crime for my Dewey's days, John Bush, has a reunion from one of the '00s seminal books on a project, along with an irreverent mash-up of a favorite Image series and everyone's favorite Wookiee...

The Rise of Palpatine

Jonathan Hickman and Ryan Bodenheim

Palpatine didn't get to where he was overnight. He came from humble beginnings to shake the galaxy to its core. Who better to tell the tale of the man who had to beg, borrow, steal, bribe, blackmail, murder, torture, lie, and pretend to be friends with Jar-Jar in order to bring the galaxy to its knees than Hickman? Think of all the opportunities for complex political shenanigans for Hickman to exploit. For art chores, Hickman's frequent partner-in-crime Ryan Bodenheim has shown he can bring some sinister personality to his characters, and that's really what you need when you're talking Palpatine.

A panel from the Eic Powell drawn Star Wars story, "The Hovel on Terk Street" from Star Wars Tales #6

Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina

Jason Aaron and Eric Powell

I think it's been pretty well established that you don't end up in the cantina if your life is in a good place. Rogues, scoundrels, and smugglers from all over litter the place and they've all got their own hard-luck stories. I'm all in for Southern Bastards in a galaxy far, far away, is what I'm saying. As for art, who draws better violent, down-on-their-luck freaks than Eric Powell?

Imperial Engineering Authority 

Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch

So Death Stars and star destroyers don't just appear out of nowhere, yeah? Someone's got to build them, but then before that someone's got to design them. Welcome to the world of the IEA, a collection of geniuses put together by Palpatine to keep his empire supplied with war machines. Some of them are very excited to be there, some just don't want their families jettisoned out of the nearest airlock. The series would have something of an anthology feel, with each arc following a different team of engineers working on a specific project, connected by a troubleshooting team that would travel from site to site whenever a project hits a snag. And, frankly, a series of stories focused on one bizarre scientific theory after another sounds like exactly what Ellis likes doing right now - and I'm on board with that. He'd reunite with his Authority co-creator Hitch because if you're going to need lots of sweeping shots of under-construction super weapons, Hitch has shown an almost unparalleled aptitude with that.

Chu-Bacca

John Layman and Rob Guillory

On an assignment gone wrong for the Galactic Rebellion, Chewbacca finds himself forced to go undercover as T'Onee Chu-Bacca, completely normal human being and agent of the Imperial Food and Drug Administration. Using a little-known but completely plausible ancient Wookiee hunting technique to absorb the history of anything he tastes, Agent Chu-Bacca and his droid partner K0L-B are tasked with investigating the appearance of a strange new fruit called Gallsaberries recently discovered on Coruscant.

And finally, my friend Nancy Kindraka, whose collection of Star Wars books exceeds anyone else I have ever met, adds in some indy creators, and has a pick for a Wraith Squadron book I wish I had thought of first...

If I could have any wish it would be to have the late Edvin Biuković back and drawing anything Star Wars. (Or possibly just anything.) His work on X-Wing Rogue Squadron and the adaptation of The Last Command was amazing.

Short of that, here's what I'd love to see:

Jedi adventure one-shot or mini 

Stan Sakai

I've been a fan of the long-running adventures of Sakai's samurai rabbit Usagi Yojimbo since forever. Sakai tells excellent stories and backs them up with elegantly paced visuals. And he does great sword fights!

Mara Jade, Mirax Terrik, and Winter solve the galaxy's problems 

Chuck Wendig and Fiona Staples

Mara, Mirax, and Winter are fantastic characters from the Legends expanded universe, and I desperately want to see them reintroduced. (We need more female characters in Star Wars in general.) I think they'd make a shrewd, dangerous, and highly resourceful team à la Leverage. You need a problem solved and a bad guy taken down? They can do that. I have no idea if Wendig is suited to writing for comics but I would trust him to try.

Wraith Squadron

Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

A squadron full of highly intelligent misfits tasked with impossible missions for the greater good? That's Wraith Squadon, and it's also one way to describe Clevinger and Wegener's Atomic Robo. I'd love to see the Robo brand of kinetic energy and wacky hijinks applied to Wedge Antilles's commando squadron.

Princess Leia ongoing 

Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz

Leia is amazing. She's a princess, a senator, a freedom fighter, a leader, a diplomat, a decent pilot, a great shot, and we need more stories about her. Weisman and Larraz's first volume of Kanan: The Last Padawan was excellent. I'm glad we're getting more from them with more Kanan but I think they'd be similarly excellent with Leia.

If Noelle Stevenson could work this drawing into her story, I know it would make the top of my read list

Zam Wessell one-shot or mini 

Noelle Stevenson

Stevenson has a collection of Zam figures and has written odes to her on Twitter. IT WOULD BE AMAZING.

Anything that floats their boat by female creators

Star Wars is not just for boys (and has never been just for boys) and I'm all for things that bring the ratio of male to female authors and artists to parity.

Resurrect the Star Wars Tales anthology

Some canon stories, some decidedly non-canon stories, a wide swath of writers and artists, a little something for everyone, and each one a slice of Star Wars. I thought they were great.


So that's our picks. Do you have a story you'd like to see? Reply here, on The Matt Signal Facebook page, or on twitter @mattlaz1013. I'd love to hear your suggestions.

15 Reasons You Should Care About … POYO

SPOILER if you haven’t been keeping up with Chew!

If you have been keeping up with the Image series by John Layman and Rob Guillory, then you, like us, are likely in mourning over the apparent death of Poyo, the cyborg luchador rooster strategically employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill and cluck things up as is necessary.

Poyo’s side adventures in Chew are the stuff of legend, and in fact at one point take place in a fantasy world. The double-page spreads of Poyo fighting horrific mash-up monsters are one of the best gags in a book filled with them.

So in tribute to the robot-eyed rooster, here’s every badass thing Poyo ever did.

Issue 8: First appearance. Poyo at this point is just a normal luchador rooster caged by cockfighting gangsters on the island of Yamapalu. FDA Agent Tony Chu – on the island investigating a mysterious fruit that tastes like chicken – rescues Poyo along with the island’s chief of police, who in turn steals the bird.

Issue 12: Ex-Chief Kulolo is found near-fatally beaten in an alley, Poyo stolen by a cockfight organizer named Butcher. Says perennial FDA informant D-Bear: “Listen, I seen Poyo fight. That f----- bird is a demon. A demon.” Chu frees Poyo from his cage, and the bird in turn claws and pecks out the eyes of his captors. “Told you, yo. A demon.”

Issue 18: Poyo is unleashed during a mission for the USDA, which pairs cartoonishly busty humans with cybernetically enhanced animals. Poyo stays hidden in a crate until such time as he is needed, at which point he proceeds to do what he does best – peck and claw the faces of the enemy, in this case a North Korean military analog. When a general appears to shoot him to death, Poyo gets up, leaps at him and tears out his heart with his beak. Chu describes Poyo as “Concentrated mayhem. Feathers, rage and hate.” Or, as a narration box puts it, “Poyo is just really, really badass.”

Issue 25: Poyo, the USDA’s “only agent with a 100% mission success rate,” is teamed up with Chu’s then-ex-partner John Colby, who at this point was working for the USDA while Chu had literally been busted down to meter maid.

Secret Agent Poyo one-shot: A flashback shows how the USDA gave Poyo his cybernetic bits. It also tells the story of how Poyo defeated the legions of Hell and Satan himself before being brought back to life because, as Satan puts it, “That is one badass motherf----- bird.” It is in this one-shot that the legend of Poyo starts to become a series of epic adventures against forces even stranger than those confronted by Chu and his human allies, such as the Irradiated Zookeeper’s Revenge, the Viltrumite Interstellar Mustache Wars, Ghenghis Condor and his Mutant Mongol Tyrano-Riders, and Icons Affiliated, which apparently was that time he teamed up with ’90s Image characters such as Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade and Shadowhawk. The one-shot’s main story, however, is about Poyo working with the British government to take down a mad scientist who’s found a way to make it rain livestock. Poyo gets zapped by Dr. Regenbogen’s device, finds himself falling from the sky, meets a cute chicken on the way down who gets zapped by lightning, turns his cybernetic wing into rocket thrusters and sets a course right for Regenbogen’s head, which explodes upon impact. After Poyo gets up, his human British partner declares, “Yeah, f---ers, POYO!!!”

Issue 28: Bites off Chu’s sister’s index finger for getting cutesy with him. Takes out a squad of E.G.G. terrorists, rending arms, eyes, ears and jaws.

Issue 29: The first of the, “Hey, where’s Poyo?” double-page spreads: “Terror in Tokyo: Poyo vs. Mecha-Turducken!”

Issue 33: “Hey, where’s Poyo?” – “Antarctic Annihilation: Poyo vs. Pengthulu!” (Imagine a red-eyed penguin with the head and tentacles of an octopus, and its many, many children)

Issue 36: “Hey, where’s Poyo?” – “Grocery Grotesquery: Poyo vs. Mutant Corn and Superfish!” (Why, yes, it is an ear of corn with rock-hard biceps and a fish that shoots laser beams from its eyes)

Issue 41: “Hey, where’s Poyo?” – “Eve of Extinction: Poyo vs. Unisaurus Rex!” (Possibly my favorite of the double-pagers, a pink T-rex with a yellow-and-pink Mohawk, a unicorn horn and a My Little Pony tail that roars rainbows)

Issue 42: “Hey, where’s Poyo?” – “Maritime Malice: Poyo vs. the Quacken!” (Half-duck, half-squid that dresses like Donald Duck, who fights alongside his three nephews and his gold-hoarding uncle, a woo-woo!)

Warrior Chicken Poyo one-shot: Poyo is transported to a fantasy dimension to help thwart an evil wizard who can turn vegetables into monsters. In this realm, he teams up with many a knockoff of the Fellowship of the Ring and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Poyo defeats the wizard by jamming himself down the wizard’s throat and ripping out his skeleton from the inside. For his heroics, Poyo is made king of the land, but the rooster they see before him is only a lookalike, for the real Poyo is needed “Wherever there is evil. Or injustice. Or just some rotten sonofabitch needin’ his f----- ass beat.”

Issue 43: “Hey, where’s Poyo?” – “Parisian Peril: Poyo vs. Escargoat!” (Half-snail, half-goat. Nuff said)

Issue 44: “Hey, where’s Poyo?” – “Twin terrors: Poyo vs. Oyop!” (A metal plate on Oyop reads, “Property of Opposite World! In dog we trust!!”)

Issue 45: Colby takes Poyo out for drinks after a fight with Chu. Upon being tossed from the bar, Colby looks into Poyo’s eyes … and snaps the bird’s neck for reasons as yet revealed. Live badass, die badass.

Dan Grote’s new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He has been writing for The Matt Signal since 2014. He and Matt have been friends since the days when making it to issue 25 guaranteed you a foil cover.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 8/21

Batman and Nightwing #23
Story: Peter J Tomasi
Art: Patrick Gleason

The Batman team-up title wraps up its initial post-Damian arcand its exploration of the five stages of grief with, "Acceptance." I've enjoyed the use of Carrie Kelly in this title since Damian's death, but I think writer Peter Tomasi made the right call in not having anyone or any plotlines in this issue other than Batman and argueably his two most important supporting cast members: Nightwing, the grown-up original Robin, Dick Grayson, and Alfred Pennyworth. Batman's mental state has been fragile since he lost his son, and this issue we see Bruce using Internet 3.0, one of Grant Morrison's concepts from his Batman Incorporated series to run simulations of his actions during Damian's final minutes, trying to prove to himself he could have saved his son. This kind of self-flagellation is not uncommon in Batman's character, or in anyone who is grieving; the question of what you could have done differently is the most haunting one a person can entertain. Eventually he succeeds, but only when Dick joins him in the simulation, reinforcing the concept of family and that some burdens need to be shared. Dick also gets a great speech about how Bruce needs to use Damian's death in the same way he used his parents', as something to drive him forward, not something to wallow in. But its the very end of the issue, where Alfred uses the machine to see what he might have done to keep Damian from ever leaving the Batcave that night, when the full emotional weight of the issue strikes. After Alfred does indeed stop Damian from leaving, thus saving him, he comes out of the simulation to find Bruce waiting. Bruce realizes that he isn't, "the only one who lost a son that night" and he and Alfred embrace. Bruce has not just finally accepted the loss of Damian, but come to see the pain in others, which is pretty big step for someone so tightly insular. Now I want to see this level of empathy and acceptance reflected in the other Bat titles, hopefully moving Batman forward as a character.

B.P.R.D.: Hell On Earth #110
Story: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art: Tyler Crook

B.P.R.D. is one of those comics that is so consistently good that it's hard to pick out one issue that is exemplary; it's just a remarkably solid comic. But the new issue, beginning a five part arc, "Lake of Fire," jumps out at me for two important returns. Firstly, artist Tyler Crook returns. Since Guy Davis left, Crook has drawn the most issues of B.P.R.D., and his art this issue is outstanding. Not only are his monsters in top form, but the moments featuring this issue's other return are just as well done. The other return sees Liz Sherman return to the pages of this comic. Since Liz started the current Hell on Earth by using her power to wipe out a threat but also triggering devastation she has only appeared briefly in a story that was pretty much a Liz story. This issue feels more like Liz returning to the world. While she hasn't encountered any of the rest of the cast yet, I feel like we're moving in that direction, especially as the hospital where Liz is currently laid up in has a new doctor, one we have seen has certain sinister leanings, ones that will surely put Liza back in a situation where she will have to take action. Fenix, the psychic who has caused her share of trouble, has now arrived at the Salton Sea, where the last arc of the Abe Sapien series took place, and has encountered the same group of monster worshippers Abe did, something that I can't imagine is going to go over well with the volatile Fenix. After the past few short arcs, this longer one seems to be a story that is going to have some major ramifications, and I'm excited to see where it's going.

Chew Vol. 7: Bad Apples
Story: John Layman
Art: Rob Guillory

The seventh volume of John Layman and Rob Guillory's Chew begins the second half of the series, and events are really picking up speed. While series protagonist Tony Chu has been through a lot, and gone on a lot of assignments, he has often been a passive character, with events and people acting on him, and him not acting on them. All that has changed. After the end of the last volume and the death of someone close to Tony, he is done with that. Tony is using his powers in new ways and becoming something of a badass. He's storming compounds, using baseballs as deadly weapons, and calling The Vampire out. It's also a sure sign of Tony's evolution to see him finally stand up for himself with his tyrannical boss, Mike Applebee, finally giving him a piece of his mind. This sends a teary Applebee right into the arms of his sometimes love interest, Tony's partner, John Colby, who also shines in this volume. Colby does have a realization about Cesar and Savoy's relationship, which does show just how clever he can be, but at the same time winds up in a real pickle with his personal life, involving both Applebee and USDA director Penya, which leads to some of the funniest pages of the entire series. I won't say anymore, as not to spoil a brilliant page or two. But for all its humor, there is some serious plot momentum and darkness in this volume too. The Vampire continues his collecting of food powers, and is bracing for war with Tony, and the mystery surrounding the Church of the Immaculate Ova only deepens, as it seems they are playing a similar game. The volume ends with something that could lead to answers, or to even bigger questions. Oh, and there's a big two page spread of Poyo versus Pengthulu. Because what would a volume of Chew be without Poyo?

Recommended Reading for 12/28: Chew

Welcome back to the Matt Signal, one and all! I hope everyone had a great Christmas/Yule/insert winter holiday here, and that you're ready for a new comic recommendation. This week's pick is tied into one of my favorite parts of the Christmas holiday: food. I love all the wonderful Christmas foods. and I love stuffing my face with them. And when I think about food and comics, the title that immediately pops into my head is Chew, published by Image Comics and created by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Tony Chu has a special ability: he's a cibopath. This means that when he eats something, he can see its entire history (except, for reasons unknown, beets). Tony uses his ability quietly to help in his career in the Philadelphia PD until he's discovered and winds up getting fired, and then hired into the big leagues. No, not the FBI or CIA; it's the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration. You see, in the world of Chew, the bird flu got out of control and was a major epidemic. Poultry was outlawed, and the FDA became a major branch of law enforcement.

Chew embraces the absurdity of it's particularly odd world, a world of food superpowers, Chogs (genetically created frog/chicken hybrids), and where buying chicken and buying heroin earn you similar penalties. For all the darkness, and trust me, there's plenty of darkness, it is a singularly funny comic. At times the humor runs into the macabre, and you might be a little uncomfortable laughing at it, but you're still going to be laughing pretty hard. Tony's large family, his partner and coworkers, and many of the criminals he encounters are strange and quirky, and these personalities lead to all sort of comedy, but never to the point that is makes them unrealistic

 

The cast of Chew

Tony is one of those unfortunate hardluck heroes who things never seem to work out for. Every time things seem to be going his way, they turn out wrong. Oh, great, he's got a job at the FDA! Oh, his new boss hates him and gives him the worst duty he can. He and his new partner are working well together! Oops, he turned out to be a murderer and he bit off Tony's ear. He gets fired from the FDA, and becomes a meter maid, but everyone at the parking authority likes him! Argh, a group of meatheads beat him with baseball bats, kidnap him, and start feeding him dead baseball players so that they can write tell-all books about the players' sex lives! It's not an easy life, being Tony Chu.

While there are issues of Chew that are traditional crime stories, even if they do often involve crime involving illicit poultry, there is a complex mythology at work. At the end of an early issue, we see a planet in distant space explode. There's no real context at the time, but as the series progresses, something is happening on Earth that might tie in. Strange alien writing appears in the sky, just like on the destroyed planet. Bizarre otherworldly poultry tasting plants begin to pop up. And there are more and more people with a variety of food related powers. Coupled with the still mysterious bird flu outbreak, something that some firmly believe was not natural, you never know what is going to happen in any issue of Chew, and never know what is going to be an important part of the overarcing plotline.

Tony is not the only cibopath in the series. His first partner at the FDA, Mason Savoy, is one as well. Mason is cultured, intelligent, and not everything he seems. He has been investigating the bird flu, and he is one of the chief voices that say it was more than just a chicken related illness. As Mason has no problem working outside the law and killing to get answers, he becomes something of an antihero after his investigations are discovered and he leaves the FDA. Mason is ruthless, yes, but he seems to feel the ends justify the means, and that he is working towards a greater truth. There is also The Vampire, a mysterious Eastern European cibopath who has filed his canine teeth to points and puts on the air of a traditional, Draculaesque vampire while using his powers. He is the series most recurring villain, and the exact endgame of his plans remain unknown, although it has something to do with eating and taking in the powers of others. And then there's Tony's daughter, Olive, who might be the most powerful of them all, but we're still learning exactly what she's capable of.

And what a variety of food powers pop up over the course of the series! The sheer ingenuity displayed by Layman in coming up with different food based powers is another of the series's charms. There's saboscrivner Amelia Mintz, Tony's love interest, who can write about food so well that you feel like you're eating it. There's Toni Chu, Tony's twin sister, who is cibovoyant, able to see the future of any living thing she bites.There's a voresoph, who is the smartest man in the world, as long as he is eating. And my favorite, Hershel Brown the xocoscalpere, who can carve chocolate, and only chocolate, so well that he produces perfect, functioning replicas. And there are more. I wish that other comics and comic companies put so much thought into the abilities of their new characters.

Not only are there superpowered people in the Chew world, but the technology available means there are also a couple cyborgs. John Colby, Tony's Philadelphia PD partner, gets cybernetic replacement parts and works with Tony again after Savoy flees the FDA. But the other cyborg, the series's breakout star, is... POYO! Poyo is the world's deadliest rooster, champion cockfighter, and all around badass. You don't &^%# with Poyo. After sustaining injuries, the USDA rebuilt Poyo (who had spent his time in the afterlife beating up the devil), and made him their top animal agent, eventually partnering with Colby, making them a team of asskicking cyborgs. Poyo got a spinoff one shot, and any time he appears, you know you're in for some brutal action.

I've talked about a lot of characters, and frankly, I've barely scratched the surface. All of these characters fit together in the same way all the instruments of an orchestra do; they look like a random collection, but when put together just right, it's a symphony. The rest of Tony's family are a collection of bizarre and angry people, most notably Tony's bitter brother Chow, a famous poultry chef who is out of work thanks to the chicken ban, and who Tony has told in no uncertain terms that he will be locked up if Tony catches him breaking the law again. Caesar Valenzano, another FDA agent, has some secrets form Tony that tie him to other members of the cast and reminds me of a character in a favorite movie of mine curious about what a quarter pounder in France might be called. And Mike Applebee, Ton'y FDA boss, is the kind of boss that you look at and are grateful that you have any other boss in the world.

One of the things that I find interesting about Chew is that, despite all the humor, it can be a very serious comic that rarely takes violence lightly; the only time it ever seems to is some of the over the top sequences with Poyo, which take on an almost cartoonish feeling since we're dealing with a superdeadly chicken. Tony suffers a lot of abuse, and he pays for it. He spends issues in a coma, and others recovering from the abuse he takes. Characters who get hurt stay hurt, with scars and the results of the violence clear, and blood is used liberally but realistically. This gives the book a sense of real danger, where characters can suffer and die and you know it's not going to be pretty when they do.

Artist Rob Guillory has a very distinctive style, and one that perfectly suits Chew. His art isn't completely realistic, with characters body's and expressions being a little beyond what you would see in most work from, say, mainstream superhero comics, but he never moves into the realm of the surreal. He presents excellent facial expressions and character scenes are great under his pen. His action scenes are equally excellent, with great continuity from panel to panel, making the scenes easy to follow, even when massive chaos is ensuing (I'm looking at you, Poyo).

A couple additional fun Chew facts. Most character names have some pun or tie to food and eating; Tony Chu, Amelia Mintz, Olive Chu. They do get more esoteric than that, so its fun to pick up the references. Also, if you're a cat person, you might find it fun that the letters pages at the back of each issue (yes, letters pages! I love that Image still has letters pages in so many of their books) have pictures readers have sent in with their cats and issues of Chew. I've been meaning to get a picture of my cat with my trades. I might have to put that up here one way or the other.

Chew is a comic that really defies category. It's has something for everyone, and can leave you scratching your head, doubled over with laughter, or with a tear in your eye. It's a mystery with science fiction elements, or maybe a science fiction story with humor. Or maybe it's the ultimate culinary mystery. But what it is, at its most basic, is great comics, and well worth checking out.

There are six Chew trades available, collecting up through issue #30, the halfway point of the series. Issue #31 is due out in late January.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 7/11

Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures #4
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Josh Broglia & Various

I admit that I read the core Atomic Robo mini-series on trade, but when this monthly anthology was announced, I jumped right on board. It's been a lot of fun so far, and since I missed reviewing issue 3 in the week I was moving, I had to do this issue. There are two continuing serials in the book. One is a Robo-less tale of the Sparrow infiltrating a Nazi fortress. The other, which tends to be the story I look forward to most in each issue, is Robo training with Bruce Lee. It's interesting to see Robo in a situation where he's trying to learn instead of teach and inform, and Bruce Lee serves as an interesting mentor figure, one who is less of a father figure than Tesla, who treats Robo as a child rather than a pupil. There are three one-off shorts, and one of them really drew my interest. In it, Robo wanders into a comic shop in 1994 and is exposed to comics as they were in the mid-90s (and how they still are to an increasing degree today). Clevinger does a good job on condemning the violence and mass consumerism of the industry in a story that is not preachy, but is a melancholy testament to someone who remembers when the industry was something else. He does a better job in four pages than most commentators can do in dozens of posts.

Batgirl #11
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Adrian Syaf

Batgirl was one of the New 52 titles I was most excited for, and while I have enjoyed it, I felt like it took a little while to find its feet. The current arc, dealing with a new vigilante named Knightfall and her cadres of cronies, though, has been very strong. This isn't the first time that the Bat titles have dealt with the idea of vigilantism and what are the lines you do not cross (the name of the villain is possibly an intentional nod to the Knightfall/Knightquest/Knightsend trilogy that is probably the most famous example in the Bat family), but this time there is an additional aspect, made more clear in this issue: the terrors of Gotham can sometimes change the innocent into the horrors that they are believed to be, and who's truly responsible then? Since the New 52, the idea of Gotham as a presence that affects its citizens has become more clear, and now this title is adding to it. Readers also get a better idea of Detective McKenna, Batgirl's GCPD nemesis, and she and Barbara reach a sort of accord. One other subplot that gets some attention is Barbara's roommate Alysia and her new beau, who just happens to be Barbara's brother James Jr., who just happens to be a serial killer. Alysia clearly doesn't know this yet, and I'm curious to see what James's plan is.

Batman #11
Story: Scott Snyder
Art: Greg Capullo & Rafael Albuquerque


"The Court of Owls" story wraps up this issue, and it ends with a bang, both figuratively and literally. Batman's confrontation with the new Owlman, his possible brother, Lincoln March aka Thomas Wayne Jr., is interesting not just because it is a beautifully constructed fight scene, which it is, but because we get a real insight into exactly what the Court of Owls has spent years doing to Lincoln's mind. The loud, brutal fight scene is nicely set off by the end of the main story, where Dick Grayson comes to Wayne Manor to talk with Bruce. The last time the two met in Batman, Bruce sucker punched Dick, and there's a nice call back to that, but more, this is two men discussing their friendship and the world around them. Bruce admits that it is Dick, his friendship and trust, that keeps him sane, and the story ends with the two of them looking out at the Gotham skyline with a renewed promise to protect their home. It's a great ending to one of my favorite Batman stories of the past few years. The backup story, the final part of "The Fall of the House of Wayne" does an interesting job of mirroring the ending of the main story, this time with Bruce and Alfred talking about the way the Court has effected their lives. Snyder has done a great job of making this story not just a superhero slugfest, but a personal challenge for his heroes, and I am very much looking forward to his next arc on he book, and the return of the Joker.

Chew: Special Agent Poyo
Story: John Layman
Art: Rob Guillory

I think I might have made this observation before, but I'll make it again here: Comic books as an art form seem to have a great ability to take the absurd, play it straight, and somehow come out with something that is not laughable but actually really fun and awesome. Chew is a book that does this really well, and that is never more clear than when the uber-rooster Poyo appears. Poyo is a cybernetic, feral, kung fu, luchadore rooster who is the deadliest fighter in the world. This sounds ridiculous, but writer John Layman makes Poyo actually a great character, and artist Rob Guillory finds a way to make you know what's going on in Poyo's head without him speaking. Granted that is mostly Poyo wanting to kill anything in his path, but still... In this spotlight one-shot, Poyo goes to England to defeat a mad scientist who has developed a device that makes it rain farm animals. It's a chaotic comic of body parts flying and chickens kicking ass. Oh, and Poyo briefly winds up in hell and beats the hell out of the Devil. To quote one of the issue's characters (with judicious censoring, since this is a family blog), "That's Poyo, mother%*#@(!"

The Walking Dead #100
Story: Robert Kirkman
Art: Charlie Adlard

Anniversary issues are a tough thing: you want to create something that rewards long time readers, but also is accessible to new readers who might jump on board for the big issue. The Walking Dead #100 does a good job of doing this. I tend to find it hard to view an issue of Walking Dead on its own; it is a continuous narrative from issue one, so everything builds on everything before. However, this issue really does establish everything you need to know, who the characters are and what they are doing, and introduces a villain who looks to be the biggest threat the survivors have faced since The Governor. We've seen Rick, our lead character, poking a metaphoric bear for the past few issues, and while things have gotten tough, this issue really makes it clear that he's in for a world of hurt. The assumptions Rick has been working under have proven wrong, and someone has paid. I've seen this issue described as the most brutal in the history of a series that never pulls its punches. While I still feel that the issue long torture scenes between Michonne and the Governor still is the most brutal, this issue does send a shiver down my spine. It looks like the next hundred issues are going to be no easier for our heroes.

Wolverine and the X-Men #13
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Nick Bradshaw

While I have mixed feelings about the core Avengers Vs. X-Men mini-series and event, I have to admit the crossovers in both Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men have been very good. I am, for want of a better pop culture reference, Team Cyclops, but I think Wolverine and the X-Men is probably the best X-Book on the market right now. Jason Aaron does a great job of balancing action, humor, and character moments in each issue. This issue serves as a spotlight for Warbird, the bodyguard of student Kid Gladiator, son of Gladiator and heir to the throne of the intergalactic Shi'ar Empire. It's disturbing to see how alien the Shi'ar mindset is, which is cool, as alien races are often portrayed as just human society with some superficial changes grafted on. Warbird's story is tragic, and the idea that she has been trained to have all compassion crushed out of her, and the result of what we could call abuse and what the Shi'ar would call teaching is something that leaves a mark. This is balanced with a savage battle between Gladiator and the Phoenix Five, which ends with an undisputed victory by one. We walk out of this issue with a better understanding of Warbird, and a clear idea that the Phoenix Five are going to be ever harder to stop than they have seemed so far. Let's see where the series goes, and if the Jean Grey School will be anything but rubble by the end.



Oh, and a couple of random notes here at the end.

I thought most of the announcements made at this year's San Diego Comic Con were fairly run of the mill, well except for the one about NEW SANDMAN BY NEIL GAIMAN!!!!!! Excuse me as I go into a brief coma of sheer rapture...

Ok, ok, I'm back. If you have ever read and enjoyed work by Greg Pak, writer of such comics as Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hercules, Magneto: Testament, and Doctor Strange: Season One, he was the mystery guest on this week's episode of Ask Me Another on NPR. You can listen to the whole episode on the link, and hear him talk about what's great about comics, and get into a trivia contest with artist Dean Haspiel about animals in the Marvel Universe.