Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 11/14

Batman #14
Story: Scott Snyder/Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV
Art: Greg Capullo/ Jock

After last issue, I thought Snyder's Joker couldn't get any creepier. And then I read this issue. The Joker works best when he's unpredictable, and when he works as a sort of deranged chess master, making moves that make no sense to anyone as he does them, but fall perfectly into place when looked at in retrospect, and here the Joker fits that mold perfectly. No one seems to be safe from his macabre plan. The splash page of Jim Gordon collapsing into Batman's arms, bleeding form everywhere, is horrifying. One would think the image of the Joker with his face strapped to his head would get less disturbing the more you see it, but that's not true; it actually gets worse. The Joker's speech, saying he is the court jester to Batman's king, and that the Batfamily is weakening him, and that all this is being done for Batman's benefit, is actually chillingly logical. I mean, as logical as anything that the Joker says, and that makes the plan all the more interesting. The lack of Alfred was keenly felt this issue. Alfred has been a major part of Snyder's run on Batman, and as Batman's own inner monologue says, the possibility of the loss of Alfred is something Bruce can hardly fathom. this is a remarkably personal story, and even though it is writ large with action and gore, it really is a confrontation between these two great opponents. One thing that I want to really draw attention to in this issue is the distinct lettering of the Joker's dialogue. Letterers Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt have done a great job of creating that style that is being used across all the "Death of the Family" tie-ins, and it's so perfectly warped. The back-up again focuses on the Joker interacting with another member of Batman's rogues, this time the Penguin. The Joker's plan seems to involve even using other villains to make Batman better, which is a nice wrinkle; not everything Joker is doing is directly in front of Batman. I especially liked Jock's Penguin, whose body language and appearance was even more birdlike than he is usually drawn without being freakishly Batman Returns. Batman continues to be the flagship title of the Batline, and each issue just makes me more excited for the next.

The Boys #72
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Darick Robertson

Even under all the blood and swearing, I think Garth Ennis is a sentimentalist. While the main plot of The Boys wrapped up last issue, this final issue puts a nice little bow on the series. Wee Hughie, one of the few truly decent people in the series, does get his happy ending, but not before putting the hurt on The Man From Vought, Stillwell. It's not a physical thing, and it's not one of those grand good triumphs over evil sort of endings. Ennis isn't that soft. Stillwell points out that you can't really beat a company, and that they'll always find a way to make their profit, but what Hughie does do is give Stillwell pause, and in the end he might not be as confident in the plans that he has for the supers. Former CIA Director Rayner also gets some righteous payback at the hands of her former underling, Monkey, with a hand from Hughie in a scene that is mean and funny at the same time, something that's pure Ennis. But it's in the quiet scenes with Hughie, where he makes a small gesture of tribute to his fallen friends and where he makes his reconciliation with Annie January that this final issue sings. It's been a long, hard ride for Hughie, and while power does corrupt, maybe sometimes the good guy gets a victory, even if it's just a small, personal one.

Locke & Key: Omega #1
Story: Joe Hill
Art: Gabriel Rodriguez

As Dodge, the demon freed from beyond the black door, now is residense in the body of Bode Locke, begins its endgame to open the door again and let its brethern in, the other Locke kids face demons far more personal. One of the true strengths of Locke & Key has been its ability to juxtapose the everyday lives of the Locke family against the supernatural horrors of Keyhouse. The pages of Dodge using the keys and the crown of shadows to move past the things keeping him from the door are gorgeous. Gabriel Rodriguez does great work with the shadows that the crown brings to life, animating them in horrible ways. The other plot deals with Scot Kavanaugh, one of Kinsey's friends with whom she had a falling out, making a video of the graduating seniors from Lovecraft Academy, and asking what people would say to their younger selves. Ty Locke talks about the fight he had with his father, right before he lost him, and both Scot and Ty's uncle Duncan try to remind Ty that he isn't responsible for everyone, something Ty has struggled with over the course of the series. We also see Ty learning to smelt and pour iron, something that is clearly a set up for the climax of the series. Kinsey jumps into Scot's path, and has her own cathartic moment after reclaiming her fear and tears, and with that, and a grand gesture from Scot as well, Kinsey, Scot, and their two other broken friends, Jamal and Jackie, and reunited and reconciled. It's a touching scene, but one made bittersweet as, on the final page, Dodge arrives at the black door, presaging great horrors for the end of the series.

Saga #7
Story: Brian K Vaughan
Art: Fiona Staples

Oh, Saga, how I have missed you on your two month hiatus. Picking up right where the last issue left off (well, after a brief flashback to Marko's youth), Marko's parents make quite a splash. Marko runs off to retrieve Izabel, baby Hazel's ghost babysitter who his parents banished, with his mother following behind, while Alana and Marko's father have a heart-to-heart. Well, the closest one can have to a heart-to-heart when one of you is being held immobile in the air by the spaceship you're traveling in. Vaughan has always done a great job of mixing humor into his series, and Alana and Marko's father's conversation is both revealing and amusing, as is the talk Marko and his mother have while hunting for Izabel. Fiona Staples cotinues to do an excellent job drawing not just the central characters, but creating interesting sci-fi and fantasy backgrounds and some really hideous looking monsters. While we stop in briefly with our heroic couples pursuers, The Will and Prince Robot, this issue is really about the family. I like the mechanic that Vaughan has created for magic in his world, the fact that it is fueled by secrets, and the final secret revealed by Marko's father is quite a doozy. Vaughan is one of comics' kings of the cliffhanger, and the end of this issue is a great example of that. I don't know how anyone could read this and not come back to find out what happens next.

Where is Jake Ellis? #1
Story: Nathan Edmonson
Art: Tonci Zonjic

I really enjoyed the sci-fi/spy comic Who is Jake Ellis? and I was excited to see that image was releasing a sequel. The series opens with Jake Ellis, the titular CIA operative with the ability to astrally project into the mind of others, in a hospital with the scientists and spies interrogating him. Jake had spent the past few years comatose and only able to interact with another agent, Jon Moore, who though Jake was his subconscious, and at the end of the last series, the two had learned differently. Jon is still out there, on the run from the people behind the performed the experiments on Jake. The issue is an exciting thriller, with Jon and Jake escaping their pursuers. It's a fun action comic; nothing too deep happens this issue, but we get a great feel for our two leads and set them on their course to meet up again. I'm looking forward to see what happens to them next.

Recommended Reading for 11/9: The Boys

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're back. Apologies for missing Monday, but I was a bit under the weather, and while I'm sure it would have been hilarious to read my ramblings on cold medication, I don't think it would have been very productive. So, without further ado...

Garth Ennis hates superheroes. Anyone familiar with his work in either the DC or Marvel Universes can tell that. Whether he's using Wolverine as Wile E Coyote in his Marvel Knights Punisher, or having Hitman's Tommy Monaghan toss his cookies all over Batman's boots, Ennis clearly thinks that superheroes are nothing more than adolescent power fantasies (which isn't to say he can't write them well. He won an Eisner for his excellent Hitman #34, one of the best Superman stories of the past 20 years). And his most recent opus, The Boys, takes this distaste to its logical, or at sometime twisted and illogical, ends.

There are really two ways to read Garth Ennis's work. You can read the surface, and get comics full of ultra violence, sex, and bizarre humor. But Ennis writes most of his long form work with subtext and theme. Preacher is really a love story, Hitman is about friendship, Punisher MAX is about the cost of violence; it's been a long time since I read his run on Hellblazer, and it was my first Ennis, so I didn't know what to look for then, but I might have to go back and see what he was talking about there. The Boys is about power, its use and abuse. And mostly the latter.

The Boys is about a team of black ops agents whose job it is to police "supes," the world's super powered population. While Ennis has crafted a world of his own here, the supes are mostly analogues for the superheroes that most comic readers know. The series mostly follows Hugh Campbell, or Wee Hughie, the Boys newest recruit, as he enters a world that he never knew existed, one of superpowered debauchery. Hughie is the character who we watch learn and change as the series progresses. Hughie, a quirky little native Scot who comes to New York to join the Boys, is a likable, often naive figure, and serves as the audience surrogate, as the rest of the Boys are not quite as easy to understand.

Wee Hughie

The leader of the Boys is Billy Butcher. A former member of the Royal Marines, Billy is a large, intimidating figure who has a deep and abiding hatred of all supes, and will do anything to put them in their place and to get his revenge. Mother's Milk is the calmest, most normal member of the Boys aside from Hughie, who serves as operational support and intel gatherer, although he can crush some heads when the time comes. The Frenchman is, well, the Frenchman, a wiry, off balance lunatic who has a soft spot for the underdog. Finally, the Female of the Species, is a seemingly mute Asian woman who small size belies her capability for extreme violence.

From my descriptions, I hope I made it clear that the Boys have no problem wreaking lots of physical havoc on their powered opponents. One of the most interesting things about Hughie's journey is watching how he deals with violence. Hughie is not a violent man by nature, and Butcher spends much of the series seemingly trying to toughen him up. Hughie is put in situations time and again that force him to have to work his way out of them not through discourse or by running away, but by having to simply clobber his opponent, something he is ill suited to do. The reader watches Hughie have to learn to choose how he is going to deal with this new world.

While we see various teams of supes, including Payback (The Avengers) and the G-Men (The X-Men), the principal supes are The Seven. The Seven are all analogues of the principal seven members of the JLA, and they serve as the main overt antagonists for the Boys. The Homelander is the Superman analogue, and has all of the Man of Steel's powers and absolutely none of his morals. Homelander is a smug, superior person who cares nothing for those he is supposed to protect. These are fairly common traits amongst the supers, and that is where Ennis sees the problem.

Billy Butcher

While Ennis is using superheroes as his vehicle to make his point, he is really talking about anyone with power. Ennis is talking about the way those in power will simply use their power for their own benefit, and not really care about those "below" them. All the members of the Seven (save one at least) are hedonistic at best, and take part on vile sexual acts and extreme violence for its own sake. Queen Maeve (Wonder Woman) keeps a parade of submissive men following in her wake, providing her with liquor whenever she wishes. Black Noir (Batman) sexually assaults Hughie for no reason other than he can. The inciting incident of Hughie's entry into the Boys is when A-Train (The Flash) accidentally kills Hughie's girlfriend while in combat with an enemy and doesn't even acknowledge the act. These are small examples of the kind of chaos the supes reek throughout the series, and each act is shown with them caring less.

The Homelander is a particularly frightening character, as the reader watches his slow descent into madness over the course of the series. Suffering blackouts, he finds after the fact that he has done things that he even views as horrible. And as these episodes grow worse, even in his normal waking hours he begins to consider showing that power is the only thing that matters, and that maybe the country would be better with him in charge. This of course puts him on a collision course with the Boys, and Billy Butcher in particular, who bleames the Homelander for the death of his wife. You see, the Homelander raped Butcher's wife, and left her pregnant with a baby that a normal human body just couldn't deal with. And the only thing that kept Butcher from going off the deep end for years was his wife. That's why Butcher joined the Boys, and this is what he's been looking for all along.

The exception to the Seven's callous attitude is Annie January, the heroine Starlight. Annie is the newest recruit, chosen after the death of one of the other members. Annie is sweet and innocent, a woman of faith, truly wants to help people. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the Seven do not. She is immediately shown how terrible the others are, and begins to suffer a crisis of faith that leads her to become jaded. But before she can begin to change into someone as bad as her teammates, she meets someone; a sweet young Scot named Hughie. You know from the minute they meet that this is going to end poorly, but you can't help root for them. The final fate of Hughie and Annie is one of the questions that will be answered at the end of the series.

Mother's Milk

 

 

Behind the scenes, Ennis does deal with a threat far greater than rogue supes, and one that is far more tangible to the real world: the military industrial complex. Supes are not a naturally occurring phenomenon, you see, and the entity responsible for creating them is a corporation, Vought-American. Vought is a monolithic corporation that share the same amoral stance as many of the supes. The members of Vought, represented often by James Stillwell, who spends most of the series simply called 'The Man from Vought", have various plans to further insert themselves into the governing structure of the US by having the Vice President in their pocket and preparing to replace conventional armaments with their own superpowered soldiers. Throughout the series, the history of Vought and the supes is pieced out gradually, giving a world portrait that is disconcerting. It's a world where the people in power just don't care.

 

While Vought and the Seven are the "bad guys" of the series, it doesn't put the Boys above reproach. The same kind of abuses of power the supes and Vought use, Butcher is more than willing to use for his own agendas. Butcher has no problem with blackmailing government officials for his funding, for degrading people he feels are beneath him. I feel like Ennis gave us a character in Butcher who we want to sympathize with, and often do. Butcher seems to really care about the Boys, and loves his dog, Terror. One of the three spin off mini-series to The Boys was Butcher, Bake, Candlestickmaker, which detailed Butcher's life, and you see he loves his family, and his wife Becky was someone he cared about more than life itself. But that doesn't stop him from being highly, frighteningly, violent. He stands in stark contrast to many of the supes, who have no morality. Billy Butcher knows what he's doing is wrong many times, but for Butcher the ends justify the means, which might make him all the more frightening.

 

The Frenchman

 

For all of the darkness of the series, and there is a lot of it, Ennis is known for his sense of humor, and there are some issues of the series that are absolutely hilarious. A personal favorite is issue #37. Hughie is trying to learn the histories of the Boys, and when he asks the Frenchman about his origins, Hughie and the reader are treated to a bizarre story involving baguette jousting and deadly stale croissants. The story is probably completely fictious, a delusion of the somewhat off balance Frenchie, but who cares? There need to be spots of light in even the darkest tales.

 

 

The Female

 

The art for The Boys is a good compliment to Ennis's scripts; it is rarely cartoony, keeping the horrors that Ennis is writing about grounded in a frightening reality. Co-creator Darick Robertson drew most of the series, as well as one of the spin-offs, and his art is a blood drenched horror when it needs to be, but he draws the very human scenes just as well, giving us a Hughie who is so completely lovable you can't help but want him to make it out of this. Russ Braun stepped in for the last few arcs, and while not aping Robertson's style, he fit his work to keep the feel of the series right on with the standard Robertson set. Regular Ennis collaborator John McCrea stepped in for a couple of issues here and there and the two other spinoffs, Herogasm and Highland Laddie, both of which fit his more exaggerated style.

 

I know that I write often about all ages comics on here, but just in case I haven't made it clear, The Boys is not one of them. As a matter of fact, I can safely say it is not for everyone. The violence and sex is graphic, and the sheer level of profanity would make David Mamet blink. And the treatment of clearly veiled analogues of superheroic icons as monstrous perverts and psychopaths will put some readers off. The thing that keeps The Boys from sinking to the level of what it is lampooning, or becoming something without any redemption, is that it is never heartless or needlessly cruel. There are good people as well as bad people, and some of the worst people have moments of clarity, although not many. Ennis is writing satire, satirizing a genre and making a point about society and human nature as a whole.

 

The final ongoing issue of The Boys will be released this Wednesday, serving as an epilogue to the main narrative, and tying up loose ends, giving a nice coda to Hughie's story. The entire series will soon be available in twelve trade paperbacks, which include the spin-offs, and are all in print and available at your local comic shop.

 

 

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 8/1

The Boys #69
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Russ Braun

When Garth Ennis is wrapping up a series or a run, you know it, because the body count just gets higher and higher. The new issue of The Boys moves us closer and closer to the inescapable conclusion of the series. I know I believed that the series was heading towards the final confrontation between Billy Butcher and the Homelander for most of the series. But when that confrontation happened at the end of the penultimate arc, I knew Ennis had something else up his sleeve. And then I realized something, something this issue makes more clear: The Boys has never been Butcher's story. It's been Wee Hughie's. And so the coming storm, the confrontation between Hughie and Butcher, is really the trajectory we've been on all along. Hughie proves this issue that he's probably more clever than many have given him credit for, but is he any braver? Aside from Hughie, we spend some time with The Frenchman and The Female. While Frenchie is a character steeped in absurdism, there have been plenty of moments in the series that flesh him out as a character, and many of those are in his tender, almost paternal, relationship with The Female. This issue gives us plenty of those, with an introspective Frenchie wondering if what he has done has really benefited The Female. Russ Braun does a fabulous job of giving us The Female's thoughts on this, since she is as silent as ever. Three issues to go until the end of the series, now. Let's see what Ennis has in store for us.

Daredevil #16
Story: Mark Waid
Art: Chris Samnee
With his time in Latveria having left Daredevil in complete sensory deprivation, this issue sees some of the rest of the superhero community attempting to restore him. While Iron Man and Dr. Strange are involved, the main hero involved is Giant Man, Hank Pym. Pym is a problematic character, to say the least; he could save the world a hundred times over, but he would always be remembered as the guy who hit his wife. This issue does something interesting, as it draws parallels between Pym's own battles with sanity and stability and those of Daredevil. Samnee continues blowing me away with the visuals on the book, especially during Pym's battle with nanites in the journey to the center of Matt Murdock's brain. The issue's ending, with the falling out between Matt and his best friend and partner, Foggy Nelson, is a major event for the series. Whether Matt has really been suffering further mental complications, or if he's being set up, will he and Foggy be able to reconcile? Foggy has always been there for Matt, and when he hasn't been around, things tend to go poorly for Matt. Waid's run on Daredevil has been his best work in years, and I can't wait to see what new twist he has in store.

The Muppets: The Four Seasons #2
Story and Art: Roger Langridge

The second issue of Langridge's final Muppets story, "The Four Seasons," is primarily a Fozzie Bear story. When I was a little kid, Fozzie was my favorite Muppet. I found him hilarious. I don't think I realized that he was supposed to be not that funny, and thus I loved him, and I still do. Fozzie gets invited to spend the summer with another theatre troupe, one that could be his big break, and he heads off to take his chance. Meanwhile, the rest of the Muppet crew is doing a summer show at the beach. Of course, being this is the Muppet Theatre, things go horribly awry, with a freak summer snowstorm more or less devastating their plans. Fozzie, meanwhile, sees this other troupe and talks to their resident comic, who has gotten his big break and is leaving, and realizes something important about himself. No reader would have expected the issue to end any way than it did, with Fozzie back with the Muppets, but the ending says somethint beautiful about friendship, something that has always been at the core of the Muppets, and about being who you are and doing what you love because you love it, and not because you think it's the way to something better.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 7/4

Animal Man #11
Story: Jeff Lemiere
Art: Steve Pugh

Animal Man has been one of the very pleasant surprises of the New 52 for me. I enjoyed Grant Morrison's run on the character back in the day, and his appearances in 52, but Animal Man has never been a character high on my radar. But this new series has been an excellent blend of horror and superhero tropes, in the same way its sister title, Swamp Thing, has been. As we approach the crossover between the two titles, Buddy Baker returns from the world of The Red (the world of animal spirits where de draws his power), with some altered powers and a serious grudge against the creatures of The Rot. Buddy is one of only a couple heroes who are married in the New 52, and his family ties have always been an important aspect of the character. Him demanding to come back to life to save his family from the thing that had possessed his abandoned body is perfectly in character, and shows the depth of Buddy's love. The scene where he returns, where he morphs his body slowly from the most primitive life form to the most complex is well written, and Steve Pugh does a beautiful job in using each of the higher creatures with a humanity in its eyes that shows that Buddy is there looking to get out. As the issue ends, we get one final push for Buddy's meeting with Swamp Thing. Can't wait to see what happens when the two horror heroes meet next month.

The Boys #68
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Russel Braun

Garth Ennis is probably known best as the writer of comics with twists and turns, a slightly sophomoric sense of humor, and over the top violence. But having read the majority of Ennis's major works, there's a lot more below the surface of his writing. He actually has a sentimental heart that comes through in a lot of his characters, and each of his major works has a strong central theme. As we reach the end of The Boys, that theme is coming to the fore: the responsibility of power, and how one is supposed to use it. There's not a lot I can say without spoiling this issue, ir without spoiling aspects of the series if you haven't read it yet and want to, but I can say this: the opening scene of the issue is pure Ennis. Four of the Boys sit around and discuss what to do with their possibly/definitely wayward leader. There's comedy (oh, the Frenchman...), a serious look at what has come before and what to do when one of your own goes to far, and a moment that is shocking and sweet when they all make the choice to do what must be done. The ending is trademark Ennis as well: a violent confrontation between two former friends where only one walks away. The roller coaster ride of The Boys is nearly over, but that doesn't mean Ennis doesn't have a few more drops and loops left.

The Muppets: The Four Seasons #1
Story & Art: Roger Langridge

After talking about the previous Langridge Muppet stories on Friday, I was excited to sit down and read the first of his last four issues, and he did not disappoint. This issue is the Spring story, and is all about love. The guest host for the Muppet Show is an attractive ape who Animal falls in love with, and the two have a whirlwind romance, to the despair of her admirer. It's a sweet little story, with all the Muppet touches, including a particularly hilarious "Pigs in Space" where the crew must turn themselves into vegetables as their ship, the SS Swine Trek, crashes to avoid being eaten by the local carnivores. And if you can think of any other comic where you could read that sentence with a straight face, I'll be shocked and have to track it down.

Thief of Thieves #6
Story: Robert Kirkman & Nick Spencer
Art: Shawn Martinbrough

I picked up the first issue of Thief of Thieves, and I really wasn't feeling it.  I loved all the creators involved, but something here just didn't click with me. I tried the second issue, and that was it, I thought. But John, my partner in crime at Dewey's, told me I should try issue three, and so one day on lunch, I read it. And this was what I had been looking for! It felt like the first two issues were just exposition setting up the action beginning in issue three. Now, at issue six, the end of the first arc, some serious action is going down. It seems that master thief Redmond has sold out his crew to get his son out of jail, but there is much more than meets the eye. Maybe it's a triple-cross, with Redmond double crossing the FBI to get his crew loose and get what he wants. And who knows, maybe there's a quadruple-cross coming down the line. What I think I have come to realize about this book is it's less a crime book, like Criminal, where the actual mechanics of the crime are important, and more a character piece, investigating a man who is trying to make right after years of doing wrong. I do love a good caper, but here the caper doesn't really matter and its not given the page count of something that does. Now, the question is whether Redmond will survive having burned his fellow crooks and the feds. Frankly, things don't look good for him; but isn't that half the fun of it?