Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 12/3

Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire #4
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Scott Wegener, Anthony Clark, & Jeff Powell

Things are looking bad for Earth. An island of Biomega, this undifferentiated mass of monster that spawns kaiju, is heading to make landfall in Tokyo, and only Atomic Robo can stop it. Well, at least stop it without causing nuclear winter or a mass extinction in Tokyo. So really, it's just another day at the office for Robo. With the Biomega island getting near land, Robo makes a Hail Mary to stop it, heading to Kazakhstan to board a Russian space rocket to use a Nazi-launched space weapon to blast the island to nothingness. And that sentence is why I love Atomic Robo. It combines the real world history with crazy science ideas and conspiracy wackiness to come up with something that is more than the sum of its parts. And now that Robo has a body again and is up and about, the book is complete. It was nice to spend more time with the Action Scientists and get to know them better, but there's a reason this book is called Atomic Robo! Robo's cool under fire reactions to the possible extinction of everything on Earth is part of his charm. What also makes this issue prime Robo is the time table is ticking on two ends; not only is the Biomega threat looming, but Robo has only limited power in his system, so has only a couple of hours before he powers down again to save the world. It's a tense situation made all the tenser. And it wouldn't be an issue of Atomic Robo if even more wasn't happening. That's the beauty of Robo's comic; creators Brain Clevinger and Scott Wegener make every panel count. Robo's Chonese allies are trying to figure out exactly how Robo is powering himself, which won't bode well when they find out he's draining from their grid, and Majestic/Ultra, the international science army, are sending in their giant mechs to fight the Biomega. Wegener hits that sequence out of the park, drawing not just incredible giant robots, but equally incredible monsters. This is where comics succeed where most other visual media fail: there's no budget, no limit aside from the imagination of the people writing and drawing it, The issue ends with Phil (my favorite Action Scientist other than the maybe-late and lamented Jenkins) arriving on Hashima Island, a locale familiar to the Robo faithful, and after pulling off a pretty hilarious fake out, heading down below the surface to meet an old... let's be nice and say acquaintance of Robo's. The set-up for a climactic issue has me really excited for next issue. Before the switch to IDW, I read Atomic Robo in trade, and now I don't know how I missed out on these monthly doses of Action Science!

East of West #22
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin

The silent issue is a tricky beast. It can sometimes come off as lazy, or something the creators are doing as a stunt. But when it's pulled off right? It is a sight to behold. And this month's issue of East of West? This, my friends, is a sight. East of West is often a title that spends issues building up to an explosion, with the politics and hunting boiling over into an explosion of action and violence; it's masterful slow burn. This issue is all burn in the best way, as assassins invade the palace of the house of Mao. I want to spend a whole paragraph explaining, analyzing, talking about the countdown clock that runs through the issue, but I don't want to spoil anything. Artist Nick Dragotta, who started this series as an artist I liked and has become an artist I adore, hits a homerun, scores a midcourt shot, hits a hole in one, insert your chosen sports metaphor here. His storytelling has never been better, cleaner, and without anything to distract from his art, he shines. There's a fight scene that could very easily have come across as tawdry and exploitative, but instead shows the power of a principle character in a way that is breathtaking. If you've never read East of West, this may not be the perfect jumping on point for you, but if you're a fan of comic art as a form, there's not a better comic to see a master craftsman at work than this one.

Robin War #1
Story: Tom King
Art: Rob Haynes, Khary Randolph, Alan Mauricet, Jorge Corona, Andres Guinaldo and Walden Wong, Emilio Lopez, Chris Sotomayor, Gabe Eltaeb, & Sandra Molina

This is how you start a crossover! Robin War, the event tying in all the comics featuring everyone who has, in current continuity, ever warn an "R" on their chest, is more than just a comic about teen superheroes fighting for their right to be teen superheroes. It touches on issues of policing and government, and, along with Batman #44, shows how the Batman titles are DC's best attempts to touch on some of the society's real issues, When one young Robin inadvertently shoots not just a criminal but the police officer who has arrived on the scene, This quickly spreads into "The Robin Laws," which basically make underage vigilantism, or even the possession of anything Robin related, illegal. We see limits to freedom and the abuse of power by the police. If the individual panels of the police tasing and beating kids aren't enough to make this clearly a problem, we see Duke Thomas, lead of We Are Robin, arrested not because he's out in costume, but because he's wearing red sneakers and, "Red means Robin." Duke is considerably smarter than the arresting officer and escapes, and calls a meeting of all the Robins. Meanwhile, two other factions are getting involved. Red Hood and red Robin are in communication, trying to decide what to do, especially when a certain x-factor returns to Gotham. And we see that Councilwoman Noctua, who is spearheading the anti-Robin legislation, is working with the Court of Owls to set off the Robin War, not exactly a surprise after last week's We Are Robin and the cover to this issue. The Robin gathering is broken up by the arrival of Damian, angry to see what in his mind are a crowd of posers using the name he's earned, but his beatdown of the Robins is interrupted by the arrival of Jim Gordon as Batman, who Damian is equally not impressed by and who he proceeds to take out with ease.When Damian doesn't listen to the Reds, they call in the one person left he will listen to, Dick Grayson, and all the players are in place, especially as the Talon of the Court makes sure the Robin responsible won't be able to come forward. That coming forward, that discussion of taking responsibility for one's actions, is another key theme here, as Duke believes it's what needs to be done, not just to put things right, but because it IS right, another reason to love Duke Thomas. As you can see from the list above, there are a lot of artists involved here, and these jam issues can often look like a mess, but the whole issue has breakdowns by Rob Haynes, and so there is a unity to the general look of the comic that helps keep the flow constant. With its strong characterization and fast-moving plot, Robin War has the potential to be the best Bat Family crossover of the post-Flashpoint era.



Dan Grote reviews another sterling issue of Doctor Strange this week...

Doctor Strange #3
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend

A good creative team can convert a nonfan into a new fan with minimal effort. Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire turned Blue Beetle and Booster Gold into DC heads’ fave besties. Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting turned a lot of people into flag-waving Captain America devotees. Mark Waid and Fiona Staples showed naysayers the beauty in Archie Comics.

And Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo have me wondering what I’ve missed all these years in the Sorcerer Supreme.

Of the many All-New, All-Different Marvel series that have launched since October, Doctor Strange may be my favorite. Aaron and Bachalo have woven a wonderful, swirling tapestry in which there is weirdness all over the mundane to the point where, to a mystic like Strange, the weird is mundane.

Until it’s not.

Something is chasing magical beings across dimensions, leading to infestations on Earth of creatures that, while hideous and possessed of many eyes and teeth, are not so much deadly as hungry and scared. Strange has seen bits and pieces of this so far the first three issues, but when he steps into Fandazar Foo, an interdimensional nexus conveniently reachable via a doorway in his house, he discovers the full scope of what is happening. Other dimensions’ sorcerers supreme hang slaughtered from the trees. A plane that should be rife with rainbows is gray bordering on dead (Note: Bachalo’s color game is as strong as his pencils, and in fact the art is at its best when the two work in contrast). The Empirikul, like winter, are coming.

In between all this, we get giant slugs, mushrooms straight outta Wonderland, a sweet ax, a heart-shaped grenade, New Yorkers barfing en masse, unfortunate knocks on Cleveland, floating Easter Island heads with third eyes, the brutal execution of a floating space whale and a naked Stephen Strange, because why not?


I know writers and artists work in different parts of the world, communicating via pdfs and Dropbox files. But in my heart, I picture Aaron and Bachalo exchanging ideas back and forth in person, and high-fiving when they stumble on something batsh** enough to put into the book. Those imaginary high-five moments are why you should be reading this book.

Missing Your Favorite TV Show? Try These Comics!

It's summer time again, meaning hot weather, cookouts, and more reality TV than you can shake a stick at. Yes, most TV shows are on summer break now, so what are you to do to occupy those entertainment hours? Why binge read comics, naturally. And I'm here to help! Here are some comics that I feel would appeal to fans of some of TV's more popular shows. Some I've talked about before, some are new, but I think there's something here for everyone. I'm steering clear of traditional super hero comics for this one to give some more exposure to books from outside the big two mainstream (although there will be a Vertigo book), and I'm not touching on The Walking Dead. If you haven't tried the comic already, nothing I say will change that.

If you like Games of Thrones, you'd enjoy East of West

Game of Thrones is known for its massive cast, sweeping storylines, and mix of fantasy with a real world grit. Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta's East of West has a similar flair with a sci-fi twist. Set in an alternate world where the Civil War caused America to splinter into The Seven Nations, the future is a world flavored with both advanced science, mysticism, and the feel of the wild west. As the series begins, a pale rider appears with his two Native American allies, and he begins hunting those responsible for his death. For this is Death himself, returned to the flesh to kill those who took his wife from him. But the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse have come in the flesh again, and they are manipulating a cabal of officials within all the governments of the American nations to bring about the Apocalypse. It's a wild, well developed world of crazy sci-fi, fantasy, and horror tropes all existing together. You can go from an issue dealing with the inner politics of the nation of African descent, to an issue about a sheriff who decided justice wasn't found in the law anymore and is hunting the cabal, and the next seeing Death confronting an oracle to learn how to find his newest target. The cast is sprawling, each of the plotlines having its own and they only seem to glance off each other, and the machinations would make Littlefinger's head spin. Oh, and there's at least one scene of GoT style sexposition. If you've ever enjoyed any comic by Jonathan Hickman, or any TV show or movie of high stakes political drama or futuristic dytopia, try East of West.


If you like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, you'd enjoy Quantum and Woody

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the hilarious cop show comedy starring Andy Samberg that debuted this season, and it does a great job of balancing the comedy with actual police procedural, while being a sitcom at its core. There are plenty of comics that mix humor with superheroics, but I can't think of any comic that is really a sit com with superhero trappings on the wracks now that works better than Valiant's Quantum and Woody written by James Asmus. Erik and Woody Henderson are adopted brothers who haven't seen each other in years until their father's death. Now, Woody is back in Eric's life, and bringing the chaos he always does, including accidentally getting them super powers while investigating their father's death that mean they have to touch the wristbands they now are forced to wear once a day or they both just dissipate. It's classic odd couple comedy, with Eric (whose superhero codeman is Quantum) as the straight man, responsible and straight laced, who wants to use his powers for good, while Woody wants to make money and get laid; and by the end of the first arc hes's brought a sexy clone of their first evil mastermind and a superpowered goat home with him to Eric's apartment. The comic lives and dies by the relationship between the characters and the fact that, as much of a screw up as Woody is, he's a likable screw up, while Eric is stiff, but is a likable stiff. And they have a pet goat that could go hoof-to-talon with Chew's Poyo (now, that's a crossover I want to see), so what's not to love?


If you like Orphan Black, you'd like Lazarus

Orphan Black is BBC America's sci-fi series about cloning, genetic engineering, corporations, and family, starring Tatiana Maslany in what is probably the strongest performance in mainstream media right now, playing not one but eight different rolls, five of them appearing regularly. And if you're looking for a comic with a high sci-fi concept, questions that deal with modern society and science, and a kick ass female lead, you need go no further than Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus. In the not too distant future, corporations run the world, and each corporation is run by a family, and each family has a defender/enforcer called a Lazarus. The Carlyle family is one of the most powerful of these families, and their Lazarus is Forever Carlyle, daughter of the family patriarch. Forever (or Eve) has been engineered to be nigh-indestructible, faster and stronger than normal humans, and indoctrinated to be undyingly loyal to the family. But things are not as they seem, as squabbles between her siblings (all normal humans) created fractures in the family, and Eve begins receiving messages saying that her whole life is a lie. Eve is not just strong, but she's clever, and more than a little bit broken, the hallmarks of a Greg Rucka heroine. There are secrets, plots within plots, and a cast of characters that you can never be sure you can trust. It's sci-fi drama with the same tense character drama as Orphan Black, but with a scope that can't be done on a basic cable budget. And I now can't help but think of Tatiana Maslany as the only actress to possibly play Eve in a film adaptation. But that's just me.


If you like The Blacklist, you'd like Thief of Thieves

I can think of very few performances on TV as engaging as James Spader's one as criminal mastermind turned FBI informant Raymond "Red" Reddington on The Blacklist; Spader plays the part with equal parts grace, humor, and coldblooded ruthlessness. He's really just a supervillain. And I don't know if anyone could pull that off. But if you like elaborate capers with a criminal as your protagonist, you should check out Thief of Thieves. Masterminded by Robert Kirkman, with various writers working on different arcs, and all drawn by Shawn Martinbrough, Thief of Thieves is the story of Redmond, the world's greatest thief, who decides to give up the business and try to settle down under his real name of Conrad Paulson and try to make amends with his estranged wife and adult son. But the life isn't willing to let him escape. A dedicated FBI agent who knows Paulson is Redmond continues to hound him. His son tries to live up to his father's rep and gets deeper and deeper into trouble. And his cohorts know he had one more big score planned before he dropped out. So now, Redmond is back in the game, and has to outsmart everyone by playing all sides against the middle. It's a caper book that starts out slow and picks up steam quickly as our protagonist finds himself in worse trouble, stuck with enemies from the Mafia, Mexican drug cartels, and law enforcement, and in the end, as the tag line for the series said, "There's nothing he can't steal... except the life he left behind."


If you like Breaking Bad or Justified, you'd like Scalped

TV has developed a love affair with the anti-hero. You can have a main character who isn't the lantern jawed hero anymore, and few characters better typify this shift than Breaking Bad's Walter White and Justified's Raylan Givens. Scalped is a modern noir where every character exists in shades of grey, created by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera. Dash Bad Horse has come back to the Prairie Rose Reservation where he grew up down on his luck. It looks like Dash needs to start over, and so gets in with Lincoln Red Crow, the chief of the tribal and the local gang lord. But quickly, it is revealed that Dash is undercover FBI, sent by an old nemesis of Red Crow's in the bureau to bring him down. But after his mother is murdered, Dash begins to spiral downwards, and the waters around him get murkier. Friends might be enemies, and enemies might be the best allies Dash could have. I wrote a full recommended reading for Scalped a while back, right after the final trade came out, and you can read that right here. Scalped is also in development for a TV series, so get in at the ground floor now.


If you like Guardians of the Galaxy or Serenity, you'd like Defiance

OK, so this last one is an inversion; it's a summer TV show that appeals to the same sensibilities as some of my favorite comics. One of the great pleasures of Guardians of the Galaxy and both the Serenity comics and their TV ancestor, Firefly, is the down on their luck heroes in the big sci-fi world. Defiance, which began it's second season last week on SyFy, is set in an Earth after the aliens have arrived; specifically various races who go by the collective title of Votans. After the war, all technology has been thrown back to a pre-computer age, and humans and Votans must work together to survive on Earth. Set in what was once St. Louis, now the city of Defiance, the series focuses on Joshua Nolan, who arrives in town and winds up becoming the sheriff, his adopted alien daughter, Irissa, and various locals, including the mayor, Amada Rosewater, the local magnate, Rafe McCawley, and local alien mobster Datak Tarr as well as their respective families. It has that same grungy, used world feeling that Firefly perfectly captured, and our heroes are always out of their depths, yet pull off a win most of the time. Other than compelling plots and well rounded characters, the thing that grabs me about Defiance is the world building. The seven alien races all have distinct looks, languages, and cultures that are distinct from one another. It's such a well thought out world it grabs you and pulls you right in. The first season is streaming on Amazon Instant Video (free if you have Prime) and is out on DVD, so you can get caught up and catch the new episodes as they air.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 3/27

East of West #1
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Nick Dragotta

While I've enjoyed Jonathan Hickman's Marvel work, it's the work he does through Image, his creator owned work, that blows me off my feet. Manhattan Projects is one of the best books on the stands month in and month out, so the announcement of a new Hickman ongoing through Image was something that got me curious and excited. East of West lives up to its predecessors. No two of Hickman's books are the same, each with a fascinating high concept that creates a unique world. East of West is a post apocalyptic weird western, set in a world where a Civil War wound up not only creating two nations, but the Seven Nations of America in 2064. After the backstory is established, the reader is given a series of seemingly unrelated scenes that by the end of the issue coalesce into a whole that is eerie. The appearance of three figures of seemingly dark power seems separate from a pale cowboy and his two Native American companions hunting for men who once tried (or maybe succeeded) in killing the pale rider. Leaving a trail of bodies behind him, the pale rider finds his way to the man responsible for his death, the President of the United States, and before he kills the president, he makes his victim say his true name: Death. The three figures are the other Horsemen, and now all four of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding through a world seemingly on the edge of tipping towards them. The clear Western influences are mixed with high tech to make a world that is both familiar and strange. Credit has to go to artist Nick Dragotta as well for crafting such a stark visual, especially with Death and his two companions, whose paleness stands out in a world that is so dark. I hope this book is as much of a hit as Hickman's other work, and we get a good long run up to the Apocalypse.

Fatale #13
Story: Ed Brubaker
Art: Sean Phillips

This seemed to be the week of the weird western, with not just East of West, but a new Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun, All-Star Western, and this gem, a one off issue of Fatale set in the old West. For a genre that was non-existent a few years ago on the racks, its nice to see it making a comeback.This issue tells the tale of Black Bonnie, another of the mysterious femme fatales who are the focus of the series, culminating in our chief protagonist, Josephine. Bonnie has been living as an outlaw, and is a wanted woman. At the beginning of the issue her gang is killed by Milkfed, a Native American hunter, and she is brought to a travelling medicine wagon, where she meets the wagon's owner, a professor who seems to know more about Bonnie's background then she does. But as with all the previous fatales, Bonnie is being pursued by the strange creatires that want her for their own sinister purposes. The issue is clearly influenced by Leone and the spaghetti westerns, with the same brutal gunplay you'd see in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Sean Phillips style blends well with the bloody and brutal world of the Old West. There are the usual Fatale twists and turns, and Brubaker provides a story that stands well on its own for readers who have never tried Fatale before. It will be nice to get back to the 20th century and Josephine, but these one shots of other fatales flesh out the world that Brubaker has in mind, and adds depth to it; I'm glad he expended the series to allow it time to breathe.

Superman Family Adventures #11
Story and Art: Art Baltazar & Franco

Only one more issue to go before the end, but Superman Family Adventures isn't taking it easy across the finish line. While Superman is at the Fortress of Solitude fighting Brainiac alongside Zod, Ma Kent takes Superboy and Supergirl in their civilian identities (glasses and all) on a field trip to Metropolis. Art and Franco have a lot of fun with this plotline. A clearly in the know Lois Lane talks to Ma, mixing up Superman and Clark, making it clear she knows the link between Superman and Clark. Perry White continues to seem obsessed with his coffee, and even offers Ma a cup. But the highlight if the issue is the arrival of Doomsday. When Superboy, Supergirl, and the Superpets can do nothing to stop the rampaging monster, it's up to Ma Kent to use her abilities as a mom to put an end to Doomsday's reign of terror. The sequence is a delight, and everything you expect from this creative team. No one does better all ages comics than these guys, and I'm going to miss this comic. What's great is that, while each issue does a pretty good job of standing on its own, the series has actually built an uber plot, drawing from various sources of classic and modern Superman comics, and have formed an easy to understand epic of sorts. And its made Ma Kent the toughest mother in the universe, as she faces down even more villains. The end of the issue has a great nod to the long lamented Tiny Titans that sets up next issue's grand finale.

The Unwritten #47
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Peter Gross

The new issue of The Unwritten picks up shortly after the last time we saw Tom Taylor in the Underworld, with no memory of who he is and faced with the new king of the Underworld: Pauly Bruckner, the hitman who was turned into an anthropomorphic rabbit. Pauly enjoys having the son of the man who turned him into a rabbit at his disposal, and tells him his version of how he became king of the Underworld. It's of course a very skewed version of events, which is perfectly in character with everything we've seen Pauly say and do over the course of the series; Pauly is a self aggrandizing and always paints himself in the best light, despite his treacherous nature. While Tom is ushered off to his quarters by Pauly's mysterious masked servants, Tom's companions, Cosi and Leon, children who died in the crossfire between Tom and his enemies, watch Pauly and see what the mad rabbit-dictator is up to. But its Tom whose journey speeds to plot forward. We see that all who have died in the conflict between Tom and his enemies are in this Underworld, and as the masked servants disobey Pauly and bring Tom to a cell deep in the castle, Tom seems to remain lost to himself. However Tom's lack of memory might be changing, and he is not sure if he wants to remember who he is, seeing the way those in the cells react to him. Identity is one of the central themes of The Unwritten, especially when it comes to Tom and his relation to his literary alter ego, young wizard Tommy Taylor. Tom has become a different man from who he was at the series beginning, probably a better one, but his trip down memory lane here will not be an easy one. The last page reveal of the identity of Pauly's special prisoner is perfectly logical, and Tom's confrontation with the person in the cell is something that will possibly shake the series to its foundations come next issue.