Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 3/16

This week' we'll be starting off with Dan Grote's review of the first issue of the new series starring everyone's favorite drunken immortal and naive assassin, Archer and Armstrong. Welcome to the Valiant fold, my friend...

A&A: The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong #1

Story by Rafer Roberts

Art by David LaFuente, Ryan Winn and Brian Reber

Sometimes you pick up a comic and you wonder why you waited so long to make it a part of your life.

Matt’s written pretty consistently about Archer and Armstrong, always making it a point to note the book’s humor. As somebody whose favorite comics include Deadpool and Chew, it’s always sounded right up my alley yet somehow just out of reach. Fortunately, this relaunch is extremely new-reader friendly.

There’s not much you need to know going in. Armstrong, aka Aram Anni-Padda, is a millennia-old, bear-sized immortal with a hunger for adventure and a thirst for booze. Obadiah Archer is a teenager trained from birth in every form of combat but is so pure of heart that he substitutes swearing for phrases like “mumble-fudgers” and “Son of a lady dog!” And his sister, Mary-Maria, leads a cult of ninja nuns and is mostly evil.

Pretty darned accessible for characters that have been around since 1992.

In this latest iteration of the title, Armstrong has gotten himself stuck in his bottomless satchel (think Mary Poppins’ carpetbag, but cooler) trying to retrieve a bottle of 1907 Lagavulin whiskey he stole from some Mafia guys in 1953. Because the satchel is left open (Armstrong is tethered to the bed in his motel room by a length of rope), the monsters that dwell inside are free to escape. Archer, who was out making a vending machine run, returns to the room to subdue the monsters and make them watch Maury Povich. He then has the plot explained to him by another creature that escaped the bag, a talking mackerel named Davey who dresses like an old gumshoe.

(It was about this point I decided I was on board.)

Archer dives into the satchel to find his partner, but not before begging Mary-Maria to watch the bag, and not steal it.

Inside the satchel is a giant library out of an M.C. Escher painting, run by goblins of indeterminate gender. Deeper inside is Bacchus, the half-human, half-goat god of wine and merriment, whom Armstrong apparently stuck in the bag thousands of years ago but doesn’t remember, much to Bacchus’ disappointment.

“Whatever, I don’t care. It’s not like I’ve been planning this moment for 3,000 years or anything,” he says when he confronts a reunited Archer and Armstrong.

Nevertheless, he sets his trash golems upon the pair, who now must rely on Mary-Maria to save them. Except she’s already decided to cut the rope and steal the satchel, so whoopsadoodle on trusting her.

The book opens with a flashback showing Armstrong and an old friend punching Mafioso and stealing the plot-driving booze. Mission accomplished, the two rest a spell on a park bench and toast to a job well done.

“Here’s to the successful end of another stupid and poorly planned adventure,” Armstrong says. May all A&A’s adventures be this stupid and poorly planned.

Clean Room #6
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Jon Davis-Hunt & Quinton Winter

I've enjoyed a lot of the recent Vertigo launches, but of them,Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt's Clean Room has been the strongest. This issue, the final part of the first arc, gives us some answers... and asks a whole bunch of questions based on those answers. The past couple issue's plot of Astrid Mueller, self hope guru and knower of mysteries, trapped in a locked room with one of the demons may have ended last issue, but this issue places out series's main character, journalist in just as tenuous a place. The demon, Spark, who possessed one of her neighbors gives Chloe an insight into the suicide of her fiancee, the thing that set her on the quest to find out about Mueller and her cult, but then it... tries to save her from another demon-possessed man, this one called The Surgeon, and when Mueller finds out, she does everything  she can to save Chloe, including revealing her secret plans. We find out what Mueller was doing with the strange Dr. Hagen from a couple issues back, and while I remembered Hagen the minute he was mentioned, I hadn't thought about him since the one scene that introduced him. Simone is a clever writer who knows how to seed hints and backstory so that when it becomes relevant, the reader slaps their forehead and smiles because it all makes sense now. But even with these answers, there are now more questions: are there factions in these possessing creatures? What exactly is their physical home? How did Astird find out about Chloe's ability to communicate with the dead? And what does The Surgeon's final cryptic line mean? The balance between mystery and reveal is hard to keep in a suspense/horror comic, but Simone has it down pat. But on top of this, the emotional life of Chloe is so rich, and her reactions left me feeling deeply for her. And Astrid Mueller remains a mystery to me; even though we got some insight into what she's doing, and why, she moves from reacting with what seems like passion to cold calculation so quickly I'm still not sure how much Chloe, and the reader, can trust her. And Jon Davis-Hunt's art is some of the top notch creepiest I've seen in a while. His distorted, monstrous faces of the possessed make your skin crawl because they balance what should be with what most assuredly not. Clean Room is a great horror comic, and one I'm glad is published by Vertigo: Vertigo started as a horror imprint, after all, and Clean Room belongs in the long line of skin crawling horror that traces back to Sandman and Hellblazer.

Kanan #12
Story: Greg Weisman
Art: Andrea Broccardo & David Curiel

A year's worth of origins story comes to a conclusion in the final issue of Marvel's Star Wars: Rebels tie-in series, Kanan. The animated series has been a great success, getting better with each episode, and this series has been enjoyable; telling the stories of how Jedi Padawam Caleb Dume became rogue Kanan Jarrus feels like the book that embodies the transition from The Clone Wars to Rebels. This issue, set entirely in the present of the series, meaning during the Rebellion era, wraps up all the threads from the series, bringing in the characters that Caleb met as a Padawan and that he met when he first changed his name to Kanan to hide from the Empire, and now having them meet Kanan as an adult, and a master in his own right. Much of the issue has Kanan and his Padawan, Ezra going to save one of those long ago friends. The issue also has a cameo from one of the animated series big bads and features an appearance from an Imperial character from the first new continuity novel, A New Dawn, which was the story of how Kanan met Hera, another of the leads of Rebels. I've always liked when the comics and the novels tie together nicely, and with the new Lucasfilm Story Group overseeing all other media to make one streamlined continuity, I've been hoping for this kind of tight tie-in before, and it's the first time I've seen that kind of tie-in. But most important the little one off issue gives you everything that is good in a Star Wars story: action, aliens, strange worlds, Stormtroopers, and Jedi. I like that even thought this features characters introduced over eleven issues and a novel, the issue stands alone, making an exciting Star Wars adventure.

Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems #1
Story: Josceline Fenton
Art: Chrystin Garland & Leigh Luna

I came late to the Steven Universe party; I only started watching the series a few months ago, deep into the animated series' second season, but fell quickly in love with the deep characterization and the message at the heart of the series, that love is universal and that it brings us together and makes us better than we are alone. And so a new mini-series featuring Steven and his fellow Crystal Gems seemed like a good issue to pick up. For those who don't know the show, Steven Universe is an eternally optimistic half human/half alien boy who spends his time having adventures with the Crystal Gems, aliens who served with his mother to defend Earth from their homeworld that planned to conquer it: confident Garnet, fussy Pearl, and prankster Amethyst. One word adjective descriptors don't do any of these characters justice, as they are all remarkably deep characters. One of the things that makes the series fun is that the Gems, despite being thousands of years old, don't really get the whole human thing, and Steven often tries to explain these things to them, things like birthdays and slumber parties. This mini-series starts with Steven having another of these adventures, this time taking the Gems on a camping trip. The fish out of water aspect as the Gems try to do normal camping things makes for great comedy: Pearl (my favorite character on the show) putting up a tent to be aesthetically pleasing and using all the parts, not realizing there were instructions to make it functional, is the kind of thing that makes for great comedy. The centerpiece of the issue is the highlight of a camping trip for Steven, the telling of scary stories around the fire. Steven's story, a riff on the classic "The call's coming from inside the house!" urban legend falls flat as the Gems overthink the scare. But then Pearl decides to tell the story she and Garnet used to keep Amethyst, the youngest gem, from wandering off when she was younger, the story of the Glass Ghost. The scary stories are colored differently from the main story, and differently from each other, and the muted color palette helps give them a spooky vibe. The issue is well structured, mixing it's scares with its jokes, and a moment with Steven finding broken glass when he went to look for firewood means the story of the Glass Ghost is obviously going to be tied into the real world; I don't think it's a real spoiler to reveal Steven sees a Glass Ghost at issue's end, and it's design is phenomenal. Chrystin Garland perfectly captures the characters looks and designs, and the art is as vibrant as the animation on the cartoon. Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems #1 is a great issue for fans of the cartoon, but works just as well as an introduction to Steven and his friends.

Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #5
Story: Robert Venditti
Art: Juan Jose Ryp & Jordie Bellaire

The first arc of Wrath of the Eternal Warrior took place in the afterlife, and followed Gilad Anni-Padda (younger brother of Armstrong from Archer and Armstrong. Of course, younger is a relative term when they're both over six thousand years old) as he left the paradise where the family he has built over his long life dwells on his quest back to life. This issue is actually a flashback to a time millenia ago, in ancient Mesopotamia. One of the great things about having a long lived protagonist is that you can do this kind of story, a tale of their past that illuminates something about what they are currently going through or will go through soon. Gilad is out hunting when a raiding party finds the village that he is living in and massacres everyone and takes his son. Upon returning home, he finds the wreck of the village and goes to hunt down those who perpetrated the atrocity. During the hunt, the panels have three color schemes: full color for the present of Gilad's hunt, yellow for what he's able to determine of those who killed Janna, his wife, and took Kalam, his son, and red for flashbacks to Gilad and Janna during the time that led up to this. It makes what happened all the more tragic as you understand the choices that Gilad made to lead to having a child with a woman he knew he would outlive, a child he knew he would also outlive. Gilad is the fist and steel of Earth, the guardian of the planet and the Geomancers, the world's guardians, and so it's not often that he is presented as emotional. This series has been building a fuller, more three dimensional Gilad, a tragic hero; here we see Gilad make a decision that there might be more than just that life for him, and we see what comes of it. It's cool to watch him use his skills as a tracker and hunter to find his way to the city of the men who took Kalam, a character we saw in the afterlife, and I think we'll learn more of why Kalam resented Gilad in that world. The art on this issue is decidedly different from the previous arc; Juan Jose Ryp made his bones working with Warren Ellis over at Avatar Press, and his style is informed by those origins: his art is hyper detailed and he draws carnage like few others. His Gilad is a muscled barbarian, befitting the time and setting, and the look on his face as he sees what has been done to those he loves and the cold determination to save his son and revenge himself are chilling. I'm looking forward to see what Gilad does next issue, and I hope that these flashback stories with different artists become a staple of this title. Gilad was my favorite character from the classic Valiant universe, and every issue of this series makes me glad to see him get the series he has deserved since his reintroduction.

The Matt Signal Advent Calendar 2015 Day 19: Spectacular Spider-Man "Growing Pains"

Spectacular Spider-Man
Season 2, Episode 6, "Growing Pains," 2009

Matt Says:

If you watch enough animation, you notice that there are certain creators who bring certain things they love to their work. And one of my favorite showrunners/writers in animation, Greg Weisman, has one that we share: Weisman loves Shakespeare. Weisman worked on Young Justice, which I already wrote about, Star Wars: Rebels, and one of my top three animated series of all time, Gargoyles, which I was tempted to include an episode of here, but tried to stick closer to comics, and I have no doubt I'll talk about Gargoyles on its own some day. Gargoyles had Shakespeare as part of its DNA, and Wesiman wound up using the works of the bard heavily in the back half of the second season of another show he produced, the criminally underrated Spectacular Spider-Man.

Spectacular Spider-Man was a Spidey in high school series, one that was deeply character focused (another hallmark of a Weisman project) and pulled deeply from the Spider-Man mythos. I'm not a big Spidey fan myself, admittedly, but this is the best interpretation of Spider-Man I've ever encountered, full of action, teen angst, and most of Spidey's big rogues (interestingly, due to his rights being connected with Daredevil, the show couldn't use Kingpin, but instead substituted Tombstone, which worked out really well). 

This episode does a great job of balancing three separate plots, two that wind together and one that stands on its own but comments on the action of the other. The two superhero plots involve Venom returning to frame Spidey for crimes he's committing; the Venom of this show is similar to the one from Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man comic, an Eddie Brock with ties to a young Peter Parker, but is less of a jerk and so his transformation into Venom and descent into hatred for Peter are more affecting. Meanwhile, John Jameson, son of J. Jonah Jameson, has returned to Earth (he's an astronaut) and found he was infected with alien spores that are increasing his strength and mass. He becomes Captain Jupiter, a superhero, but as the spores continue to affect his mind, eh grows unstable, and when Venom turns him against Spidey, it takes a lot for Peter to stop him.

The more personal plot of the episode sees the kids of the Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School auditioning for the school play. Nearly every scene change in the episode is framed by one of the supporting cast delivering a line from Shakespeare against a dark stage. And these aren't "To be or not to be" or "Out damned spot!" Weisman knows his Shakespeare and digs deep to get quotes the are appropriate to what is going on in Spidey's life; especially good are James Arnold Taylor's delivery, as Harry Osborn, of lines from 2 Henry IV, Kelly Hu as Sha Shan Nguyen with a line from Richard III, and  Grey Griffin performing a... unique take on lines from Hamlet as cheerleader Sally Avril. Kudos to showrunner Weisman and episode writer Nicole Dubuc for working the works of the Shakespeare into an animated series in a way that makes it understandable to a younger audience and enjoyable to an old hand like me.

The Matt Signal Advent Calendar 2015 Day 15: Young Justice "Coldhearted"

Young Justice

“Coldhearted,” Season 1, Episode 20, 2012

Matt Says:

I knew I had to include an episode of Young Justice in my list for this year, as it is up there with JLU as one of the best superhero team animated series ever. But picking a single episode was tricky, as it is a very serialized show, one where I have a hard time picking a single episode that stands above the rest, especially when you get to the ambitious second season. This isn't the only show on this list where I ran into that problem, two more coming up had a similar issue, and one of those is another show produced by Greg Weisman. But thinking about what images stuck in my head, I was struck with Kid Flash running through the snow on a mission of life and death, and so I decided to go with "Coldhearted."

I'm a big fan of Wally West; I grew up in the 90s, and that makes Wally my Flash. He was the Flash in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and neither of the episodes I picked for those shows had a lot of Wally, so that's another reason to choose this episode; It's a great spotlight for the character, who is still in his Kid Flash identity at this point, still Barry Allen's sidekick.

Wally's sixteenth birthday starts out perfect: big breakfast with his parents, snow day from school, surprise party from his superhero friends at Mount Justice, and when it turns out coast-to-coast snow is man made, a team up between the Justice League and the Team (what the young heroes are called as a group). But Wally's excitement is quashed pretty quickly: while the other young heroes are off to fight the flying ice fortresses, he has been given a mission to run a transplant heart from Boston to Seattle to save a little girl's life. This isn't the exciting adventure he was hoping for, and he's disappointed.

As Wally runs the heart, he begins to realize how important it is, even as he's distracted by cute doctors, food, and Vandal Savage, who's waiting along the route to get revenge on Flash, who he assumed would be running the heart. Wally fights Savage, only to realize that it's not important, that it's not his mission. Wally arrives in Seattle to find that the girl has died... or that's what he's told by a man who tries to steal the heart. The girl is Queen Perdita of Vlatava, and her uncle, the supervillain Count Vertigo, is trying to wait out the clock and let her die so he can inherit the throne. It's up to Wally to make one last ditch effort to retrieve the heart and save the girl.

What's great about the story is that not only is it an exciting and well told superhero story, interspersed with scenes of the other heroes fighting the flying ice fortresses on top of Wally's adventure, but it's a great coming of age story. In the end, Wally realizes the import of his mission, not just because he saved a country from being taken over by a supervillain, but because he saved a little girl's life. Those strong character beats are one of the highlights of Young Justice, and this episode is a perfect example of them.

Fun fact: this episode serves as a sort of sequel to a Green Arrow short that was originally released with the DC Direct-to-DVD movie Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, which introduced Queen Perdita and featured Green Arrow having to save her from one of Vertigo's earlier attempts on her life. In that short, written by Young Justice producer Greg Weisman, Green Arrow was voiced by Neal McDonough, better known as Dum-Dum Dugan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and currently plaguing Green Arrow as Damien Darkh on Arrow.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 4/1

Gotham Academy: Endgame #1

Story: Becky Cloonand & Brenden Fletcher

Art: Jeff Stokely, Clio Chiang, Joy Ang, Vera Brosgol

I firmly believe that scary stories are best told out loud, to a group of people, and in the dark. The communal scare is a binding experience. So, as the Joker's rampage continues through Gotham, the students of Gotham Academy, including series protagonists Olive, Maps, and Pomeline, are sealed up in the school gym in tents to avoid the chaos and share a series of Joker themed tales of terror. Olive tells the tale of a stolen Laughing Mask that haunts the boy who stole it. Professor MacPherson, who teaches history, tells a particularly macabre and gory tale from her native Scotland about the Wandering Jester, who if you don't laugh with him, you become a part of his act straight out the worst of EC Comics. And Olive shares a story told by her mother about Gotham's own version of Bloody Mary, the Smiling Man (a nod to Snyder's conceit in the main Batman title that the Joker is in fact an immortal who has been haunting Gotham for centuries, I believe). Each of these tales of terror is drawn by a different artist, giving them a unique look that still fits nicely with the style of the monthly comic. It's also interesting to see how jaded Maps is, how she brushes off the presence of the Joker as someone who interrupted her cartoons a couple times a year and then as stopped by Batman. When you look at how the adults and the superheroes are all affected by the Joker in all the other tie-ins, this reaction is fascinating: when you grow up with something like the Joker making the world as terrible as it can be, you just get used to it. There's also the mention of another of Gotham Academy's legends, The Custodian, who defends the campus from all threats external to the school, and as some of the people infected by Joker Venom begin to raid the school, a man dressed in antique garb with swords begins to fight them off. And where exactly is Headmaster Hammer in all this? If you've been picking up "Endgame" and not Gotham Academy, or vice versa, this is a great way to get a taste of the other series. And if you haven't read either, and just like a good spooky story, then pick it up.

Graveyard Shift #4

Story: Jay Faerber

Art: Fran Bueno

Jay Faerber and Fran Bueno's tale of vampiric terror, Graveyard Shift, comes to an action packed conclusion in this exciting fourth issue. Having identified where the vampires who turned Hope have been working out of, Liam and his vampire fiancee head to confront them. But Cromeyer, the master vampire, is prepared, and Hope is brought to his photography studio while Liam is brought down into his dungeon. We follow our two leads as they fight very different threats. Faerber sticks to all the classic vampire rules, so Liam come prepared with an arsenal that the cocky vampires don't even search him for, while Crommeyer attempts to lure Hope over to the dark side (Yes, a bad pun, but I stick by it). This was a really well structured series, starting out with an exciting, action filled first issue, then slowly building the world over the next couple issues to set up this final confrontation. It really gave Fran Bueno a chance to shine, showing some great fight scenes, and some really monstrous vampire faces.  When the dust settles, Liam and Hope set off for future adventures to try to find a cure for Hope's vampirism. Yes, that gives away some of how the series ends, but this is a classic monster movie: good is going to defeat evil. And if you are even the slightest fan of vampire movies and tv, you are going to get the biggest smile when you see the last page; I'm not going to give that away. Graveyard Shift was a great horror story in a model that isn't often used anymore: the monsters were villains and the good guys were good guys. If you like The Lost Boys, Near Dark, or The Monster Squad, you can't go wrong with Graveyard Shift.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Best Story Ever

Story: Tim Seeley

Art: Reilly Brown, Iban Coelle, Jacopo Camagini

There are a lot of fans who don't like one shots because, unless they're part of major stories they, "don't matter." And fans of that particular mindset probably skipped this one-shot, and if they did, they missed a very fun comic. Star-Lord and Rocket are in prison, and in a cell together begin telling the story of one of the Guardians escapades; with Thanos on trial for his crimes before a gathering of cosmic entities, like Eternity, Infinity, and the Loving Trilobite ("Living Tribunal! Don't they teach you anything on Earth?"), Nebula is going to help free him, and the Guardians stand in their way. While the guards are distracted, the remaining Guardians are sneaking into the facility for reasons unknown. The bickering Rocket and Star-Lord sequence is a lot of fun, as writer Tim Seeley does a good job of capturing both of their voices. It's also cool to see Nebula backed up by the Graces, a group of female warriors introduced in the run up to the original Annihilation crossover brought together and trained by Gamora in one of her darker times, of which Nebula was a member. This is one of those plot threads I always hoped would be picked up somewhere, and I'm happy to see them used again. Rocket and Star-Lord wrap up their story as the caper works out and the Guardians make their escape, but we then get a different version of the ending, one that is a bit more thoughtful, and continues to draw the relationship between Gamora and Nebula a bit closer to the movie continuity without feeling forced. There's the final reveal of the McGuffin that the Guardians were trying to steal, which is just singularly ridiculous and perfect for the "Guardians as rag tag band" concept that has been their recent shtick. If you enjoyed last summer's Guardians of the Galaxy movie, this is a great issue to give you a better idea of their comic book status quo.

Kanan: The Last Padawan #1

Story: Greg Weisman

Art: Pepe Larraz

While I haven't disliked Marvel's new Star Wars line, I've grown less and less wowed by it. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it doesn't feel like anything new; after twenty plus years of stories set in that period between Episodes IV and V, there's not much new to be mined. But the debut of the first Marvel series set in another time period has rekindled my hope. Kanan: The Last Padawan tells the backstory of Kanan Jarrus, the lead of Disney's well received Star Wars: Rebels cartoon. Set as the Clone Wars are coming to an end, we see Caleb Dume, Kanan's  real name that he abandoned to go on the run from the Empire, and his master, Depa Billaba, leading their clone battalion to retake the world of Kaller from the Separatist Droid Army of General Kleeve. After victory is assured, the Republic forces find themselves less than welcome by the natives, with Kalleran leader Gamut Key downright rude to Master Billaba, something she takes far better than her Padawan. Moving out of the city, we get a thoughtful discussion of how young Caleb is adjusting to being a Padawan instead of just a youngling at the Jedi Temple, how he fits in with clones, like Commander Grey and Captain Styles, and the Jedi's role in the war, something Billaba sees as heading in the wrong direction for the order. We also see more of Caleb as the inquisitive student, an impression first hinted at in the novel A New Dawn, another recent Star Wars tale that shone a light on another aspect of Kannan's backstory. The issue ends on a dark note, as writer Greg Weisman doesn't drag out the suspense leading up to what all Star Wars fans know is coming: Styles receives the transmission from the newly christened Emperor to execute Order 66, meaning next issue will begin Caleb's flight for his life and heading towards becoming Kanan. Greg Weisman, showrunner of the first season of Star Wars: Rebels and creator of one of the greatest modern animated series (Gargoyles) and showrunner of the one of the best superhero cartoons ever (Young Justice), does his usual deft work of establishing character and setting, and gives old fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe hope that not everything has been forgotten; his reference to Master Billaba being known to be unstable is a clear reference to her fall to the dark side in the novel Shatterpoint. That bit of knowledge, or any foreknowledge of Rebels, is completely unnecessary, though, to enjoy a Star Wars comic that stands up well with many of the Dark Horse tales of the Clone Wars.

Southern Bastards #8

Story: Jason Aaron

Art: Jason Latour

The second arc of Jason Aaron and Jason Latour's southern Gothic, "Gridiron," wraps up the origin of the series antagonist Coash Euless Boss. After the first arc introduced and quickly killed off the character most readers assumed was going to be the series lead, it was an interesting choice to spend the second arc digging deep into the history of the man who killed that character. Aaron's work on Scalped showed that he was fascinated in making all his characters as three dimensional as he can, and so giving us an understanding of who Coach Boss is makes perfect sense. This issue we see the final confrontation between Euless and his abusive father, a confrontation that ends with Euless proving just what he'll do to be involved with football. He gives a speech about why the game matters, why he loves it, and what he loves about it; it's not the winning, it's the beating of the other team, the moment when they're so beaten he can see in their eyes they just want to quit. It's a cold speech, the kind that sends a little chill down your spine. And we see what Boss does to become the young coach, the deal he makes with local mobster Mozel, and how he tells Big, his mentor, that all this is "worth the blood" to be able to be on the field, to be able to do the only thing he's good at in the world. But it's apparent that Big has his misgivings, and the issue ends back at the present where it seems that the events of the first arc and the death of Earl Tubbs, has been the final straw that Big can no longer take. The final pages set up the next arc, as there's another Tubbs headed to Craw County, and there's a storm on the horizon. We might understand Coach Boss, but for me, I sure as hell don't like him, and I hope that storm hits him hard.

And Dan Grote visits Black Bolt in the zero issue of the new title in Marvel's new hoped for franchise...

Uncanny Inhumans #0

Story: Charles Soule

Art: Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten and Justin Ponsor

Uncanny is a loaded word to tack on as the title adjective of the new Inhumans series. It plays into reader concerns about the caste-obsessed subrace supplanting mutants because of movie-rights issues.

But the Uncanny in Uncanny Inhumans doesn’t seem to be so much a shot at Uncanny X-Men as it is an homage to Rick Remender’s first volume of Uncanny Avengers, specifically the subplot about Kang the Conquerer raising the progeny of superheroes.

In Uncanny Avengers, Kang stole the X-Man Archangel’s twin children from a Red Skull concentration camp and raised them to get mutants out of his way so he could rule time properly. In Uncanny Inhumans, Black Bolt – deposed ruler of the Inhumans – asks Kang to send his son, Ahura, into the timestream to save him from the end of the world, aka this summer’s Secret Wars.

The book presents itself as a Black Bolt solo title. We follow him from the streets of Rio de Janeiro, thwarting a crew of poachers hunting terrigenesis cocoons; to New Attilan, where his estranged wife, Medusa, scolds him for past grievances before sending him through a portal; to 1908 Siberia, where Kang is hiding out with Ahura.

The opening of the Siberia sequence is some of Steve McNiven’s best artwork in this issue, as Black Bolt storms Kang’s castle, which is guarded by an army of time-plucked knights and soldiers. When Black Bolt’s done playing games, he whispers “Goodbye” and blows a hole in the wall.

The one real downside to this book is it’s a little heavy on exposition. The poachers explain to each other who Black Bolt is. Medusa recounts recent events. Kang explains to Black Bolt that he is a time traveler as if that were not already evident. And Ahura, moody teen that he is, feels compelled to keep explaining that Black Bolt’s full name is Blackagar Boltagon, one of the more patently ridiculous firsts and lasts in the Marvel Universe.

But first issues have a lot to set up. Writer Charles Soule has built up a lot of good will having written the most recent She-Hulk series, one of this blog’s more beloved titles of the past year, so let’s see where he and McNiven take Marvel’s royal family.

Animated Discussions: Young Justice

In the 90s, Bruce Timm and his collaborators redefined not just DC animation, but superhero animation in general with the work they did in Batman: The Animated Series and its successors, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited. There have been some other great superhero cartoons since, both from DC and Marvel, but nothing that ever approached both the complexity of plot and character and the outstanding animation. That is until Young Justice debuted on Cartoon Network on Thanksgiving two years ago. With the series finale this weekend, I thought I'd look back at this series, and talk about what made it so great.

To start with, let's talk about the comic that loosely inspired the series. By 1998, the New Teen Titans (or New Titans at that juncture) comic that had once been DC's number one seller had seen better days. After its cancellation, DC decided they needed a teen superteam book, but the Titans name was toxic, so they took three of their teen heroes, each who were headlining their own comics, Robin (Tim Drake), Superboy, and Impluse, and put them together with the recently introduced new Wonder Girl and a new character, Secret, to for a new team, unofficially called Young Justice. Over the run of the book, new characters joined, including Arrowette, a young female archer, and Empress, a mystical character, as well as mentors including Red Tornado, Snapper Carr, and The Ray. The series ran fifty five issues, along with various one shots, tie ins, and a really fun fifth week event called "Sins of Youth" where the teen heroes were aged to adults, and their mentors were de-aged to teens. The majority of the issues were written by Peter David, who brought his usual sense of zany humor and strong characterization, and had great art from Todd Nauck. After five years and a relaunch of the classic book as just Titans featuring the original team as grow-ups, DC decided it was time to go back to the original name, cancelled both Young Justice and Titans, and launched the new Teen Titans series by then up and comer Geoff Johns.

The series premiere of the animated series was designed to draw clear parallels with the first appearance of the comic team, which took place in the one shot Young Justice: The Secret. In the comic, Robin, Superboy, and Impulse liberate a mysterious young woman with powers called only Secret from a government lab. The debut of the animated series saw the sidekicks, wanting to prove themselves to their mentors, invading Cadmus Labs and freeing Superboy, the clone of Superman, from his creators.

These sidekicks, though, are not the same characters from the comic. The Robin of the animated series is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, the youngest but most experienced member of the team, who has something of a chip on his shoulder about this at the beginning. Kid Flash, Wally West, replaces his cousin Impulse as team speedster; Waly has the patience of a speedster, always running off at the mouth and into danger. And the initial team is rounded out by Aqualad, but not Garth, the original sidekick of Aquaman. This Aqualad is a new character, Kaldur'ahm, with powers similar to Aquaman's wife, Mera, who controls water density. Versus the impetuous Kid Flash, and the overconfident Robin, Aqualad provides a voice of reason, and is a natural leader, taking command of The Team (as they are addressed by members of the Justice League). Superboy is recruited after he is freed from Cadmus, but has a hard time adjusting. He's spent his whole life being indoctrinated, doesn't trust anyone, and is prone to fits of rage.

Over the course of the first season of Young Justice, two additional characters were added to The Team. Miss Martian was introduced as Martian Manhunter's niece. She is friendly, warm, but not quite versed in human interactions. Artemis is introduced as Green Arrow's new sidekick after Speedy, his previous one, stormed off in the premiere, feeling he should be granted Justice League membership and not shuffled off to second string status. Artemis is quick witted and immediately begins shooting verbal barbs at Wally as accurate as her arrows. While other young heroes Zatanna, Red Arrow, and Rocket joined in the first season, these six were the principal cast, and the ones most fully developed by the creators.

The Team was assigned by Batman to be the covert ops arm of the Justice League, doing reconnaissance missions and attempting to ferret out a mysterious group that seemed to be manipulating various events to their benefit, and to do it in a way the more powerful and flashier Justice League cannot. But these secret missions reflected one of the core themes of the series: secrets, and the cost that they take on someone.

Throughout the first season, three of the principals each wrestled with a secret, ones that were used by The Light, the coalition of villains that were attempting to take control of Earth's destiny, to control the young heroes: Miss Martian is secretly a White Martian, Artemis is the daughter of supervillain Sportsmaster, and Superboy has been using chemical patches given to him by Lex Luthor to activate his full Kryptonian potential. Each of the heroes wrestles with how to reconcile these things, things that are true about them on a deep level, with who they want to be. This takes the typical issues teenagers have and writes them on a grand scale. In the end, only by trusting each other with their secrets, are the young heroes able to finally best The Light and save their mentors.

The creators of the show took a considerable gamble with the show's second season by jumping forward in time five years, and redubbing the show Young Justice: Invasion. Half of the original team are gone, and new members including Young Justice comic alums Wonder Girl and Tim Drake (now as Robin, since Dick Grayson has become Nightwing) have joined, along with other young heroes like Blue Beetle, Lagoon Boy, and Beast Boy. By the middle of the season, Impulse has appeared as well, and he's a great addition, proving just how patient Kid Flash was in comparison to the even more hyperactive speedster.

The second season dealt with the Light's alliance with a mysterious alien race. It starts out looking like they are at war with another race, the Kroloteans, for control of Earth, but the Krolotean subplot is resolved quickly, leaving The Team to deal with The Light and their allies, The Reach. The Reach, for those of you in the know, are the race that created the Blue Beetle scarab, so Blue Beetle becomes a central figure to this season's arc. The writers do an excellent job of writing Beetle, with Jaime Reyes being the newcomer/everyman figure who is still somewhat flabbergasted by the superhero world, and letting him be surprised by the same things the viewers are.

I don't want to give away too much about the second season, since it's really a big mystery story with tons of twists (heck, talking about The Reach was a pretty major spoiler), but the great pleasure of Young Justice is that I can talk about the characters, ones who are very well wrought, without spoiling too much plot. Another major arc of the season has to do with Miss Martian's expanding powers, and her use (and abuse) of them. This has driven a wedge in between her and Superboy, who were a couple in the first season. The abuse of power is a common theme in superhero comics, and it's explored really well in Miss Martian's story, as she has to learn that the ends don't always justify the means.

I also have to say that one of the great things about this show, and something that neither Justice League or Teen Titans were able to do due to licences, is to have The Team interact regularly with the Justice League, and even with members of the Justice Society a couple times. This not only gives the universe of the show a much more lived in feel, but it opens up avenues of plot that wouldn't be available otherwise. Seeing Robin interact with Batman, and how different that is than how he interacts with his teammates, makes him a more well rounded character. With Aquaman around, you can really open Atlantis up for plotlines. And Superboy's issues with being a clone of Superman are made more interesting by allowing him to interact with Superman.

This also means that a full slate of DC Universe villains are available. Not only is Deathstroke, enemy of Titans and pretty much all young heroes, able to appear, but The Light can include The Brain (Teen Titans), Lex Luthor (Superman), Ra's al Ghul (Batman), Vandal Savage (Flash), Queen Bee (Justice League), Black Manta (Aquaman), and Klarion (Etrigan the Demon). There can be an Injustice League with the Joker (voiced creepily by Brent Spiner) and hints of Intergang and the New Gods. Part of me would have loved a Justice League series set in the same world with the same sort of interconnectivity.

The thing that has made Young Justice as good a show as it is, aside from its stellar animation, is its strong writing. The plots never spoke down to their audience, and were intricate. Events that happened at the beginning of a season would pay off at the end. Some episodes were written by Peter David, including an intense Halloween episode featuring Secret and her evil brother, Harm, and the episode that introduced Impulse. I chalk a lot of this up to the fact that one of the show runners was Greg Weisman. Weisman is probably best known as creator of Gargoyles, probably my second favorite cartoon series of all time, right behind Batman: The Animated Series. Someday, I'll probably write something up on Gargoyles, as there have been a couple tie-in comics. Weisman's work is known for its intellect and its maturity, and, in my opinion, the fact that it ends prematurely. He's like the Bryan Fuller of the animated world (he was also exec producer on the under appreciated Spectacular Spider-Man series, also cancelled prematurely after two seasons).

And this weekend, it comes to an end. I know there's been a lot of fan uproar, with petitions and letter writing campaigns, and that's great, and it shows how many people loved the show, but the reason the show ended wasn't because no one liked it: it was because of money. The toy line for the series, the bread and butter for animation targeted at younger audiences, as a failure, and that is the death knell for shows like this. So, I plan on buying the most recent DVD set this Saturday on Amazon during the series finale. If anyone out there who is reading this loves Young Justice too, think about doing that. If the news of the past day or so about Veronica Mars (another show I loved) proves anything, it's that studios listen when there's money involved. And believe me, if you like DC Comics, teen heroes, or good animation, this is a show well worth trying out.

The entirety of the first season of Young Justice is available on DVD in two sets: Young Justice: Season One Volumes 1,2,& 3 (these were originally released as three single disks, now collected), and Young Justice: Dangerous Secrets. The first half of season two is also available as Young Justice: Invasion- Destiny Calling. There was also a tie-in comic, which I have reviewed in the past, written mostly by writers connected with the show. Currently there are three volumes available, with a fourth and final one due out later this year.